Bad Influence
by Cthulhu555
Summary: A humorous journey where Chara speaks to Frisk in their head, trying to push them to kill, but the pacifist in Frisk is far too strong, and they simply go through the events of the Pacifist and True Pacifist route having pleasant conversation and becoming friends with the psychopath in their head, trying to bring them around to their way of thinking. Chara in italics to help flow.
1. Confusion

Frisk the Human was having a very confusing day. Less than 3 hours ago, they were hiking through the forest, enjoying the scenery when they decided to explore a cave in the old mountain. There, they fell down into a new world. They had been there not 2 minutes, when a psychotic flower tried to kill them, but something stranger still happened then. As the Flower talked to them, something about love or something, a child-like voice spoke in their head,

"Just kill him. Spare us from this insufferable monologue, and end his suffering."

Frisk found this command disturbing and was surprised to find they could respond.

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"Because killing is wrong."

Suddenly, little pill shaped objects were flying towards them. Frisk dodged them on instinct, and was tempted to apologize. The flower tried again. Frisk was getting a bad feeling about this, and decided to purposely avoid the next barrage, and the one after that, especially when the flower seemed to get increasingly angry. Suddenly, the flower's form changed and in a menacing tone it said, "You know what's going on here, don't you? You just wanted to see me suffer." Then with finality, he grimly said, "Die."

What Frisk now knew to be deadly bullets appeared all around them, undodgeable. The sadistic flower started laughing as they encroached. "I told you we should kill him!" "Not now, uh… Who are you, actually?" "That's not important, considering we're both going to DIE NOW!" Just as that statement finished and Frisk felt tears well in their eyes, a fireball knocked the flower away and all the bullets disappeared. "What?" they both heard the other say.

They turned to face the source and found a tall goat lady who kindly said, "What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent, youth. Ah, do not be afraid, my child. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place everyday to see if anyone has fallen down."

"That's convenient," thought Frisk. The other voice was silent.

The goat woman continued, "You are the first human to come down here in a long time. Come! I will guide you through the catacombs."

"Well, that's nice of her."

"Yeah, sure, I guess." Frisk noticed the apprehension and decided not to push with their new… friend? Sure, they'd call them that until further notice.

Toriel led them through the ruins, helping with puzzles, even holding their hands. Frisk always smiled up at her and liked the hand-holding. The voice groaned each time they did so, but they certainly weren't going to stop just from that. Toriel introduced them to a talking dummy and Frisk talked to the dummy, giggling at how silly it seemed. Toriel was pleased and they continued on. Eventually, as they were walking, a Froggit hopped towards them. The voice asked, "Can you give me control? You have that stick for a reason." "No, I got this." then audibly said, "You have beautiful eyes." The froggit seemed confused, but happy, until Toriel raised a fireball and glowered at it until it left. The voice said, "Maybe we should wait on killing her, yeah?" Frisk refused to dignify that with a response.

Soon Toriel told the child she had to do something difficult and leave for a moment. Frisk didn't feel even the slightest feeling of doubt, and neither did the voice, but Toriel seemed worried. Frisk calmly walked to the end of the room. "You know she's behind that column, right?" "Yeah, but let's not let her know that." Toriel soon appeared and explained that it was an exercise in independence. She then gave Frisk a phone and told them to stay put before leaving. Frisk sat down for about five minutes. "Do you want to leave, Frisk?" "1. Yes, 2. How do you know my name?" "1. I'm in your head, 2. You're a moron." Frisk laughed and then stood up. "Alright, let's go." Frisk walked out and saw a Froggit. Before talking to the Froggit, Frisk's eyes fell upon a nice bed of leaves. Frisk felt drawn to the leaves and played in them for a bit, feeling flush with a feeling like none other, before returning to the patient monster. Frisk noticed the Froggit was intently watching and walked over with a wave and a smile. "Excuse me, Human. I have some advice for you about battling monsters. If you act a certain way or fight until you almost defeat them, they might not want to battle you anymore. If a monster does not want to fight you, please, use some mercy, human." "Will do." Said Frisk. "Or you could, y'know, not." "What is up with you?" "Nothing. Nothing." The voice said defensively. Frisk then remembered a Froggit was still watching their internal battle, then smiled and waved again before turning around.

Immediately after, a Froggit bounded up. This time, Toriel wasn't here, but Frisk was sure they had this. One measly attack dodged and a compliment later, the Froggit bounded away satisfied. Frisk wasn't hurt, but only just barely. They decided they needed to get good at this, and fast. Next, they walked North to find a bowl of candy. The bowl said take one, so Frisk did. They then thought, "Let me guess, you want me to take another?" "What, no, it's disgusting. It's not like it's chocolate or anything. If it was, then absolutely, but I don't even know why you're even taking one." Satisfied with this answer, Frisk put the candy away and called Toriel. "Hi mom." "Huh? Did you just call me… mom? Well, I suppose- would that make you happy? To call me, mother?" Frisk rolled their eyes as they heard gagging sounds in their own head. "Well then, call me whatever you like!" Then she hung up. "Kiss up." The voice remarked. Frisk giggled at the jealous sounding comment. Frisk didn't know what it was about the voice, but they liked it. It was annoying, and said a lot of things they didn't agree with, but having company was nice, and having a friend, or even a frenemy, never hurt… They hoped. They forged onward, eventually calling Toriel while passing through a seemingly pointless room where they fell through the floor. They learned Toriel lived here in the ruins, not surprising, and continued to move on.

Soon, Frisk found a room with a rock and what looked to be a pressure pad and without even reading the sign on the wall went to push the rock. At that moment, Toriel called and asked if they preferred Cinnamon or Butterscotch. They carefully weighed their options, until both agreed cinnamon was the way to go for this completely pointless question. Shortly after, Toriel made sure they didn't dislike Butterscotch. They agreed they didn't mind it, and if two beings within one mind that had met about an hour ago could look at each other with suspicion, they would've been doing it. They continued to encounter and spare moldsmals, froggits, and whimsums everywhere, and eventually met a funny rock that didn't understand the concept of going to a switch and staying on it.

Frisk came upon a hallway blocked by a ghost staring up at the ceiling. Frisk waited for minutes, while the ghost said the letter z aloud multiple times, then decided they might need to be a bit more direct. They asked the ghost to move and the ghost started apologizing for being in the way and crying all at once. One of the tears grazed Frisk and stung, so they knew to avoid the tears as another attack. After some dodging, patience, and positivity, Frisk got to see a cool "hat trick," (Frisk told the joke in their head and the voice practically hissed at them to stop). Frisk applauded the trick, and the ghost kindly moved. Frisk kept walking and found a room covered in webs with a sign, that read, "Spider Bake Sale. All proceeds go to real spiders." That sounded okay to them and they left 7g in the first web and soon received a donut with spiders in it. "Can we at least stomp on some of the spiders, they're gross and dangerous." "N-O." Frisk spelled out with exaggeration on each letter.

They went North and met several frogs, each with helpful advice. Frisk walked into a new room and grasped that amongst the piles of leaves were structurally weak spots they could fall through to find the switch that solved the puzzle. After some wandering, they met a new monster, had a nice meal, reconnected with their new ghost friend, and finally found something interesting. They found a cute ribbon, and decided to put it on. "Why are you putting that on?" "Maybe they'll want to hit me less if I look cuter." Frisk elected to ignore the following scoff, guffaw, and snicker from their companion, soon followed by an indignant snort.

Frisk went through a puzzle about perspective with ease. "You must really like puzzles, hunh?" "Hmm, yeah, I guess I do. They're fun to solve." "I hate puzzles, they get in the way and slow you down from what you're going for." Frisk was still thinking on this when they prepared to walk North. "Wait! There's something to the East, I think you should check it out." Frisk didn't like the tone in the voice, something was fishy about it, but did so anyway. There, they found a toy knife on the ground. "Pick it up." "Why?" "You never know, maybe you'll have to defend yourself." "The stick will work fine." The voice took a pleading tone, like a child wanting a cookie and said, "Pleeeeeeaaaaaassssseee?" "Fine, but only to make you happy." "Yay!" Frisk picked up the knife. It felt uncomfortable in their hand, but they supposed it was fine. It's not like they ever intended to use it, but they figured, as long as they have a voice in their head, they might as well throw it a bone every now and then. Then they went North and ran right into Toriel, about to call them on the phone.

"How did you get here, my child? Are you hurt? There, there, I will heal you. I should not have left you alone for so long. It was irresponsible to try to surprise you like this. Err… well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come, small one!" Frisk obediently followed, and was filled with that same feeling as before at the sight of a lovely house such as Toriel's. When they entered Toriel said, "Do you smell that? Surprise! It is a butterscotch cinnamon pie. I thought we might celebrate your arrival. I want you to have a nice time living here. So I will hold off on snail pie for tonight." The almost uncontrollable joy and anticipation Frisk felt for the pie, lessened somewhat at the disgusting thought of snail pie, but they decided they would get over it. The voice replied to their thoughts, "Hey, don't knock it til you try it." Frisk agreed that that sounded fair and followed Toriel as she declared another surprise.

"This is it. A room of your own. I hope you like it!" Toriel gently rubbed Frisk's hair, and Frisk thought to themself (selves?) "I think the ribbon had something to do with this." A laugh came through their head and they were satisfied that one of their jokes finally hit home. They went inside as Toriel went to make sure her pie didn't burn, and realized how tired they really were. It had been an exhausting, but fun day so far. They decided a nap would do them well. They lay on their new bed but couldn't seem to sleep just yet, so they decided to reflect.

"So, uh-" The voice began, "-how did you fall down here?" "Well, uh, I used to live at this orphanage. It sucked. Everyone that worked there was either a jerk or couldn't care less about us. I always went outside and played in the forest when they weren't looking. Yesterday, I got… disciplined, for doing that, and decided to spit in their face and go further than I ever have. I went to the mountain, even though they said never to do that. The old lady that ran it always talked legends about monsters in the mountain, but everyone thought it was an old wives' tale to scare children away from exploring. Guess we were wrong, hunh?" They chuckled, but there was no joy in the laughter. "I explored, then fell down here. Then you started talking to me." Silence followed for a time. "Why do you want to go back? It seems like there's nothing back there for you." "I don't know. I guess I just feel like, I belong there. I don't know how else to live." More silence for an even longer time. "Chara." "Excuse me?" "My name. You asked my name earlier when we almost died. My name is Chara." "Oh. Nice to meet you, Chara." "I guess you're alright too, Frisk." Frisk smiled and then turned on the bed, soon falling into a deep sleep.


	2. A One-Sided Fight

Frisk woke up after a nice, restful, sleep. "C'mon, up-and-at-em. Chara needs some chocol- what's that?" Frisk turned to see a plate with a slice of pie on it. The pie smelled delicious, but they decided to hold onto it for now. Frisk smiled and Chara said, "C'mon," impatience growing, "If you want to leave we should go. Unless you want to, y'know, go back outside and take care of some of those pathetic whelps outside." Frisk started to explore the room around them, and found several pairs of different shoe sizes. "Hmm, that's odd." Thought Frisk. Frisk knew they had to go home. They didn't want to go back to the orphanage, but they definitely couldn't stay here. They did not belong here, in the underground. They really liked Toriel, but they couldn't stay. It felt like their whole being, their whole soul needed to leave this place as quick as possible. "Well, as long as you're leaving, why not clear out the Underground on the way?" Frisk didn't listen as they thought hard on how to ask Toriel how to leave.

"Up already, I see. There are so many old books I want to share. I want to show you my favorite bug-hunting spot. I've also prepared a curriculum for your education." Frisk had not yet been to a school, but what they heard about them made their skin crawl. "This may come as a surprise to you, but I have always wanted to be a teacher. Actually, perhaps that isn't very surprising. Still… I am glad to have you living here. Oh, did you want something? What is it?" "Okay," Frisk thought, "Just keep your cool, take a deep breath, and ask her." "Oh this will go over with her well. Can't wait to see how this turns out for the both of us." Frisk ignored Chara and quietly but still audibly said, "When can I go home?"

"What? This. This IS your home now." "Yeah, going about as well as I expected." Um, would you like to hear about this book I am reading? It is called "72 Uses for Snails." How about it?" Frisk decided it couldn't hurt and agreed. "Here is an interesting snail fact. Did you know that snails sometimes flip their digestive systems as they mature? Interesting." Frisk agreed, but instead said, "How do I exit the ruins?" Toriel responded with, "I have to do something. Stay here." And then placed her book down before quickly leaving the room.

"Frisk, I have a very bad feeling about this." "I know Chara, but I need to get to where I belong. There's only one way she could've gone: Down." "Why leave? You could stay and become the strongest person in the Underground, in the world. Imagine the power you could have. Do you have any idea how strong humans are compared to Monsters?" "No, I didn't." Frisk said, surprised. "Why are we so strong? We can take their souls when they die and it makes us stronger. The exp and LOVE the flower was talking about, it wasn't all a lie. That stuff exists, but to become stronger, you have to kill monsters." "I am not killing innocent monsters for power." "Why not? Isn't it worth it?" "NO! And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find Toriel and get out of here using calm logic and friendly conversation." Frisk said with a slight air of superiority. "Sure, that'll happen." Despite Chara's sarcastic protest, they pushed on.

Frisk went down the stairs and found Toriel. She informed the child that she was going to destroy the exit to the ruins, giving both children in one head a sense of foreboding and dread. She told the child to go upstairs to their room, but they forged onward. She warned them that every child to fall before them has died. They came, they left, and they died. She called them a naive child and warned that the monsters, and someone named Asgore, would kill them. Yet still, their determination pushed them forward. She gave them one last warning before turning a corner. Frisk followed and found Toriel standing in front of a large door.

Toriel turned to face the child and spoke. "You want to leave so badly? Hmph, you are just like the others. There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself." "WHAT!?" Exclaimed both children mentally. "Prove to me you are strong enough to survive." Fireballs rose from thin air. "Hey Frisk, on second thought, I'm pretty tired, I think we should go back and take a nap." "No, we're standing our ground and leaving these ruins." "Frisk, she's going to KILL us! Quit being so stubborn!" "I'm not stubborn, but I am determined." As they finished the argument, Toriel began her first attack. Fireballs came for them, slow moving, but in curving, difficult to predict arcs. Frisk nimbly dodged them all with a few close calls and a little less hair on their head, but overall they were intact. "Now do we kill her?" "Chara, I swear to God!" "Okay fine, no, just let her take her shots and do nothing, I guess." Chara said sarcastically. "Exactly." If Chara could've bolted upright from a chair, eyes wide in horror, they would've. "Wait, What!? That's not a plan, in whose right mind is that a plan!?" "Shut up and watch. She doesn't want to do this, her eyes are wavering, hands quivering. She can't stand to look us in the eyes." "Great, so she won't even see when we BURN TO A CRISP!" Frisk was exasperated at Chara's panic and the fact that it prevented them from seeing what Frisk knew to be true; though they only met hours ago, Toriel deeply cared about them and wouldn't let harm come to them.

After several attacks with no counter or response other than silence and a stare, Toriel became frustrated. "What are you doing?" After more silence, "Attack or run away!" Frisk stood their ground and they could feel inside their head that Chara was starting to understand what Frisk had meant. "What are you proving this way? Fight me or leave!" Frisk stared more intensely at her, goading her motherly guilt. She couldn't take the stare any longer and said, "Stop it. Stop looking at me that way." Frisk looked at her the way that she looked at them when the battle began, a withering glare. She said nothing, but her attacks stopped going near Frisk. Her fireballs strayed to both sides, circling around Frisk. Chara said, "Turn around, Frisk, she's trying to stab you in the back." "No. No she's not."

"I know you want to go home, but." She faltered in her speech, "But please… go upstairs now. I promise I will take good care of you here. I know we do not have much, but we can have a good life here." Frisk stood their ground. "Why are you making this so difficult? Please, go upstairs." Frisk shook their head decisively one time. "Ha ha... Pathetic, is it not? I cannot save even a single child... No, I understand. You would just be unhappy trapped down there. The Ruins are very small once you get used to them. It would not be right for you to grow up in a place like this. My expectations... My loneliness... My fear… For you, my child... I will put them aside." Toriel bent down and hugged them. Frisk was happy to have gotten past without harming her, and fought to hold back their tears. "Woah. I can't believe you did it, Frisk."

"Goodbye, my child." Toriel left, turning back to look at Frisk one last time, Frisk smiled and waved before Toriel turned around again, and left. "That wasn't so bad, was it, Chara?" "No. No, I guess not." Chara seemed to be heavily in though, and even though they shared a head, Frisk couldn't delve into Chara's thoughts, and was pretty sure they didn't want to even if they could. Satisfied, they moved on past the door. Past it was a long hallway with lighter shades of carpet every 50 feet or so. Beyond that, lay a golden flower, basking in light.

"Oh. Hello again. Flowey, was it?"

Flowey seemed to ignore the question, saying, "Clever. Verrrryyy Clever. You think you're really smart, don't you?" "Pretty smart, yeah. What's your point?" Thought a very sarcastic and snarky part of Frisk. "Where did that come from?" Asked Chara. "Just because I don't kill doesn't mean I'm a saint. I can still be as sassy as I want, or as sarcastic as you or anyone else. Who knows? It might even help us later on." "Huh." Chara seemed to respect Frisk a little more, all with a simple "Huh." With that, they both refocused on the flower in front of them.

"In this world, it's kill or be killed. So you were able to play by your own rules. You spared the life of a single person. Hee hee hee..." "Actually dozens," Thought Frisk, " If you include Froggits and Whimsums and such. Still not seeing a point." "What is up with you right now?" "I don't know, I just don't take this murderous flower that seriously. You have your murdery thoughts, and I have my sarcastic ones. Don't judge me." "Fair enough, fair enough." Flowey went on. "I bet you feel really great." Chara waited for sarcasm that never came. When asked for an explanation, Frisk said, "He's making it too easy, it doesn't become funny after a while if every sentence is easy fodder. I'll give this one too him. But as a side note, I do feel fantastic." Chara chuckled at the surely purposeful hypocrisy before listening again. "You didn't kill anybody this time. But what will you do if you meet a relentless killer?" "Evidently, if they're in my head, I'll make friends with them." Chara had no response to the unexpected zinger against their homicidal tendencies, so they both waited in silence for Flowey to go on. "You'll die and you'll die and you'll die. Until you tire of trying. What will you do then? Will you kill out of frustration? Or will you give up entirely on this world and let ME inherit the power to control it?" "What the hell does he mean by that?" "I don't know. Maybe we'll find out some time." "I am the prince of this world's future. Don't worry, my little monarch, my plan isn't regicide. This is SO much more interesting." Flowey finished with an evil laugh and then left.

"Alright, I guess now we go to the door." Frisk walked to it and gently pushed on the handle. It didn't work, so Frisk pushed harder. "Hey, imbecile. It says pull." Frisk looked and found a small sign that said pull next to the handle. "Oh. Whoopsy." They said with a sheepish smile. Chara sighed then said, "What would you do without me?" and Frisk sensed the smile their friend was giving them. They gladly took it, pulled on the handle, then opened the door to feel a blast of frigid air and witness a beautiful forest covered in snow, ahead of them. And so, the first step of their long journey had been completed, but little did the two know, that it was far from over and that the Ruins would be far from their last struggle in the Underground.


	3. Spooky Scary Skelebros

[Quick Note: There's a poll on my profile regarding this story that I would like any readers to check out real quick, it will help me in the future, and yes the title being misspelled is on purpose, I like having a K in all three words. With that, to Grandma's house we go!]

Frisk took a moment to take a few deep breaths in the cold air. It was a good thing that the striped shirt they had was wool, because it was the only thing preventing them from freezing; even with it they could feel the chill. While they breathed, they looked around and a glint in a nearby bush caught their eye. They cocked their head to the side as they inquisitively walked to the bush. "Careful, it could be a trap." "True." Frisk paused and their hand stalled near the bush. "But I'm gonna touch it anyway." Frisk separated a few of the branches and found a camera, complete with a flashing red button signifying that it was recording. "Hunh, that's weird." "So it is. Anyways, let's keep going. I think we've got a long way to the surface." Frisk got walking on the path again before asking, "What makes you say that?" "Oh, ya know, just a feeling. The Underground is a big place, and we don't even know where the way to the surface is." Frisk couldn't shake the feeling that Chara knew more than they were letting on, but as they thought about this, a chill came up their spine. Not the chill of cold, but of fear, and they got the feeling they were being watched.

"Uh, F-frisk? You feel that too, right?" "Y-yeah." They looked around frantically and their pace quickened. They immediately began regretting their decision to leave the Ruins and silently tried to telepathically beg for Toriel to come back. They stepped over a large branch and seconds later heard a loud snapping. They refused to turn around to look and Chara's voice echoed in their head with a loud, "FRISK, WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" with the last word sounding more like, "Die-hi-hi" as the words trailed into sobs. Frisk began to panic and started running until they reached a bridge with a fence in front of them. The "fence," consisted of a few posts with so much space in between the only thing they were going to stop was an elephant. However, in the second it took them to come up with such a witty and funny observation, they heard footsteps behind them. Now, at this point, they had not died and neither child knew that their determination would allow them to come back if they did happen to die. As such, they panicked and cried like the small children they were. On the inside, of course. Frisk tried hard to show no emotion and put on a stoic face as they listened to the footsteps of someone who could only be death himself.

"Human." "Yes?" they both thought, voices quivering. "Don't you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around and shake my hand." Frisk felt like they couldn't move, like all their muscles had seized up, but they forced themself to slowly turn around. In front of them was a short, big-boned skeleton wearing a blue sweatshirt, black track shorts, fuzzy pink slippers, and a big smile. They had no eyes, but bright dot-like pupils inside their eye sockets, watching them carefully. They extended a hand to Frisk and with immense willpower, Frisk grabbed the skeletal hand. As they did so, they heard a long and protracted farting noise. The moment it began, Chara panicked and let out a yelp inside Frisk's head, expecting death. While Frisk, on the other hand, couldn't pick a thought to think of out of the millions running through their head at the moment. "Who is this? Why is he following me? Why did he just prank me? Why is Chara such a baby?" The questions kept coming and before Frisk could sort any of them out, the skeleton spoke. They had a low, almost gravelly voice, but it always seemed to speak in a carefree, contented tone. "He heh, the old whoopie cushion in the hand trick. It's ALWAYS funny." And Frisk agreed. The fear they felt just moments ago melted away and they smiled at the skeleton, while Chara said nothing for the time being.

"Anyways, you're a human, right? That's hilarious. I'm Sans. Sans the skeleton. I'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. But… y'know… I don't really care about capturing anybody. Now my brother, Papyrus… He's a human-hunting FANATIC. Hey, actually, I think that's him over there." Frisk turned and squinted until they could see a figure approaching in the distance, with a dash of red coloring. "I have an idea," Sans continued, "Go through this gate thingy. Yeah, go right through, my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone." Frisk started walking and Sans followed behind. "Friiisk, this is a bad idea." Insisted Chara. "I don't know, something about him makes me like him. He's eerie, but he seems nice enough. Don't know about his brother though. He sounds like he might be a little less welcoming."

The figure came closer, almost into clear vision now, and they were running out of time. Luckily, Sans noticed a nearby lamp and said, "Quick, behind that conveniently-shaped lamp." Just as Frisk settled behind the very oddly shaped lamp, a skeleton walked up. He was tall and wore some sort of armor, with an orange-ish red scarf, red boots, and red gloves. He carried himself with an air of confidence that was immediately felt; he seemed like a very proud skeleton. Sans greeted him with a, "Sup, bro?" The skeleton, who Frisk remembered was named Papyrus, responded, "YOU KNOW WHAT 'SUP' BROTHER! IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T RECALIBRATED! YOUR! PUZZLES! YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING!? Sans calmly responded with, "Staring at this lamp. It's really cool. Do you wanna look?" "Oh no" Thought Frisk. However, Papyrus responded, "NO! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!" Frustration filled his voice as he angrily stomped his foot on the snowy ground. The anger reminded Frisk of a child throwing a tantrum and they struggled not to giggle, but they smiled all they want. "WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE!? I WANT TO BE READY! I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE! I WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN!" "Capture sounds a lot better than kill, don't ya think, Chara?" "I guess, but I'd rather neither of them happen to us." "Agreed."

Papyrus took a victorious, posing stance as he proclaimed, "THEN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I UTTERLY DESERVE! RESPECT! RECOGNITION! I WILL FINALLY BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD! PEOPLE WILL ASK, TO, BE MY, 'FRIEND'? I WILL BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING!" "Aww, he just wants to be loved and to have friends." "And to capture us." "But only to get friends! I think we should be his friend." "I think you're a loon. But… since you're the one in control, I recommend something. I recommend we watch him a little more and find out more about him before we make any decisions. Maybe he's a trap like that flower was." "Okay, that sounds fair." At that moment, Sans said, "Maybe this lamp will help you." Frisk thought to themself, "Yeah, maybe, I, will." saying the last words slowly and with finality. "SANS! YOU ARE NOT HELPING! YOU LAZY BONES! ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE! YOU GET LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERYDAY!" The perpetual smile on Sans' face widened as he said, "Hey, take it easy. I've gotten a ton of work done today." He winked and his smile became ear to ear as he said, "A skeleton." Frisk struggled not to laugh at the joke. True, it was a terrible pun, but Frisk liked terrible jokes, including puns. He found that the less funny the joke was, the funnier it was to laugh at it. Not to mention the fact that Frisk just liked jokes in general. They were growing to like Sans more and more by the minute. Chara, on the other hand, groaned telepathically before saying, "I hate puns. They're never funny."

The Great Papyrus seemed to agree as he shouted, "SANS!" "Come on, you're smiling." "I AM AND I HATE IT!" Frisk realized that they were always smiling due to being skulls, which made him a bit uneasy as he realized that it would make it exceptionally easier for the two to ruse someone into trust. He decided to keep that in mind for the future before listening again for the next exchange. Papyrus sighed heavily before saying in his loud, proud, and high-pitched, nasally voice, "WHY DOES SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME, HAVE TO DO SO MUCH JUST TO GET SOME RECOGNITION?" Sans said, "Wow, sounds like you're really working yourself... down to the bone." This time Frisk did giggle, and the skeletons looked around a bit before deciding it was nothing and continuing. Chara chastised Frisk with a, "Nice going, numbskull." "Was that a pun?" "No, of course it wa- oh." Chara had made an accidental pun and Frisk had to use all their willpower not to laugh again. Frisk heard noises in their head and evidently Chara was hitting themself for making the worst kind of joke, accidentally, no less.

Papyrus uttered a loud, "UGH! I WILL ATTEND TO MY PUZZLES! AS FOR YOUR WORK... " Papyrus' grin widened just like his brothers did earlier. "He's not." Hissed Chara. "Oh, but he is!" yelled Frisk, practically bouncing with anticipation. "PUT A LITTLE MORE…" "Don't do it you stupid skeleton." "Do it Papyrus!" Frisk said. Their voice raising in both pitch and volume. "'BACKBONE,' INTO IT!" If Chara could flip a table, they would've, but they settled for breaking imaginary objects in the small pocket dimension inside Frisk's head that they inhabited. Frisk heard all sorts of crashing, splintering, breaking, and above all yelling, as Frisk laughed loudly internally. Papyrus, however, laughed externally, "NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus left and Chara's tantrum winded down in Frisk's head. Chara breathed heavily and if Frisk could see them, they imagined they would be frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog. As Frisk was about to move, Papyrus suddenly returned for another quick, "HEH!" before leaving again. Sans waited a moment then said, "Ok, you can come out now."

Frisk stepped out and stretched from being in the same spot for so long. "I. HATE. THESE STUPID. SKELETONS!" "Aww, come on, Chara, I like them. They're funny, and goofy, and that Papyrus guy needs a friend." "Well then, you can be his friend, but I'm going to be his worst nightmare. Or at least, I would if I had a body. Say, you wouldn't happen to have one you can loan to me, would ya?" "No, now let's go talk to the lazy skeleton." Frisk walked up to Sans and waited for him to speak. "You oughta get going. He might come back. And if he does… you'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes." "Oh, good, so he does know he's utterly awful." "Chara, be nice." "Sorry Frisk, but nice isn't in my nature." "You're nice to me." "Well, that's… that's different. Leave me alone." Chara went silent and once again Frisk decided to let them have their space, but deeply wanted to know the secrets Chara held and why they were the way they were. They figured they would find out in the future and decided to follow Sans' advice. They were about to walk forward when Sans spoke again.

"Actually, hey." Frisk turned to face him. "Hate to bother ya, but can you do me a favor? I was thinking, my brother's been kind of down lately. He's never seen a human before. And seeing you might just make his day." Frisk instinctively made a face and Sans, noticing it, continued, "Don't worry. He's not dangerous, even if he tries to be." Frisk thought a moment, then smiled and nodded at the skeleton. "Thanks a million. I'll be up ahead." Then Sans turned around and walked the way he came. Frisk expected him to realize his mistake, laugh, turn around and walk past them, but he didn't. He just walked out of view. As he did that, Chara broke their silence and said, "I hope you know what you're doing." "You and me both, buddy." Then Frisk's eyes wandered to the lamp again and it struck them just how lucky they were that the lamp was perfectly shaped to fit them. The coincidence filled them with determination that their journey was meant to continue and that fate just helped them out. Filled with that wonderful feeling, they pushed onward to find a fork in the road.


	4. The Other Skeleton

Frisk noticed an odd looking box with a sign next to it and elected to examine that before picking a road. The sign said, "This is a box. You can put an item inside or take an item out. The same box will appear later, so don't worry about coming back. Sincerely, a box lover." "Okay, a few things. First, to get the sarcasm out of the way, Yes, this is, in fact, a box. Thank you for that valuable information." Chara lightly chuckled at this before Frisk continued. "Next, what could it mean by it 'coming back?'" "Well, if I had to guess, I'd say it's magical, considering we're underground and things are magic here." "Cool. Let's go North first." Frisk walked up and saw a river. They noticed a fishing pole stuck in the ground with a line in the river. "Huh, no one's watching the line. That's a terrible way to catch fish." "Boring. Let's keep going."

Upon walking back to the crossroad, they saw a large monster that looked like a snowflake and a bird combined. "Hey, you! How'd you like to see a show?" "Uh, ok." "Great, here we go, pay attention now." As the Snowdrake prepared to start, Frisk felt the urge to yawn, they couldn't stop it, and the Snowdrake noticed. "Hey! I said, PAY ATTENTION!" Snowdrake threw several razor sharp, crescent shapes made of frozen ice at Frisk, which they nimbly dodged. "Oh, good. Now that I have your undivided attention," He said with an edge of annoyance, "You better not, 'snowflake,' out." Snowdrake looked expectantly at the child. "Uh, Frisk, I think it's best if we laugh. He might leave us alone then." "Gotcha." Frisk laughed to the best of their ability and Snowdrake seemed very pleased. "See!? Laughs! Dad was wrong!" Frisk waved goodbye and walked towards the East, while Snowdrake bounced back and forth happily.

Frisk walked the other way and saw Sans and Papyrus up ahead. They hadn't noticed them yet, and Chara groaned before saying, "Oh God, please anything but these guys." "Alright, let's just give them a chance. You heard Sans, we should be fine." "Speaking of Sans, how did he get here? Remember, he went the other way." "Oh yeah. probably just looped around somewhere." Suddenly, Papyrus said in his loud and carrying voice, "SO, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE," Papyrus seemed to see them out of the corner of his eyes and turned to face them. So many emotions showed on his skeletal face, somehow. He seemed confused, excited, afraid, and so much more at once. Sans followed his brother's gaze and turned to see the human. He flashed them a smile before turning back to his brother. In comedic fashion, Papyrus kept looking from the child to Sans and back, getting faster and faster. Sans followed along and did the same. Frisk struggled to keep their neutral expression, while Chara said nothing but was clearly ill-at-ease. Sometimes, when Chara felt very strongly about something, Frisk could feel it, like a cloud, hanging around in a part of their mind they didn't want to venture into. Right now, he sensed extreme annoyance.

Eventually, the tops stopped spinning, facing the other way and Papyrus spoke in a whispered tone, but still loud enough to be heard. He said, "SANS! OH MY GOD! IS THAT... A HUMAN!?" Both brothers turned around quickly, then turned back. Frisk waited patiently for them to comprehend what was in front of them. Or rather, behind them. Now, they turned around to face Frisk and Sans said at normal volume. "Actually, I think that's a rock." "OH." "Hey, what's that in front of the rock?" Frisk smiled and did a gentle wave. "OH MY GOD!" Papyrus leaned a little closer to his brother and loudly whispered, "IS… IS THAT A HUMAN?" Sans leaned in equally close and whispered, "Yes." Papyrus turned fully to face them before yelling, "OH MY GOD!" Chara said, "Oh please, come up with something new to say, Papyrus." "Oh, I think that's the first time you've actually called him by name." "Did I? Whoops, I meant to call him 'stupid skeleton.' Oh well, I guess I'll just make sure I do it from now on." Frisk smiled inside and out, as the tall skeleton continued. "SANS! I FINALLY DID IT! UNDYNE WILL…" He seemed so filled with excitement that he wasn't able to get his thoughts straight; he seemed ready to burst. "I'M GONNA… I'LL BE SO! POPULAR! POPULAR! POPULAR!"

Frisk felt bad for the skeleton. He seemed to only want attention, to be loved, to have friends. Frisk became determined to show him that he didn't need to capture a human to make friends, and decided they would soon get to work on becoming his friend. As they thought this, Papyrus cleared his non-existent throat and continued his speech. "HUMAN! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN! UH, THEN…" His voice trailed off and the finger he used to be raising so high fell a little bit before coming to his chin. "I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT. IN ANY CASE! CONTINUE, ONLY IF YOU DARE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH heh heh heh..." His laughter became quieter as he moved further away, before eventually falling away and stopping altogether. Frisk giggled a little at the goofiness of the skeleton. "Sans looked to them and said, "Well, that went well." Considering they were still free, Frisk agreed. "Don't sweat it kiddo, I'll keep an eye socket out for ya."

Sans walked away after his brother and Frisk figured they should follow. First, however, they found a structure made of cardboard, that looked like a small sentry-station. As they walked closer, they saw a lot of writing on it, in all caps. It read, "YOU OBSERVED THE WELL-CRAFTED SENTRY STATION. WHO COULD HAVE BUILT THIS, YOU PONDER. I BET IT WAS THAT VERY FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN! (NOTE: NOT YET A VERY FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN.) "I swear he's a lunatic, but you're more of one if you want to be his friend." "Mind your own business, Chara. I can have all the friends I want." Chara gave a small "Humph!" sound and didn't seem in the mood for talking after that. They walked for a bit, and it didn't take long for Frisk to start again. "Look, I'm sorry for what I said. You and I, we're stuck together, for whatever reason. And as long as we are, I want to be your- I want to keep being your friend. It's just… A lot has been happening recently. I feel like I fell down and now I don't even know which way is up. All I know is that since we left Toriel, I've been aching for a friendly face and this is my best shot at getting some new friends that I can actually see the faces of. We alright?" Chara sighed then said, "Yeah, we're alright, partner." They seemed to smile on the inside and that cloud of emotion they felt lost it's tension.

Frisk smiled and was so preoccupied that they didn't realize they had walked past a sign and now stood in front of a sentry station. They realized this when a voice that sounded like a dog if it could talk said, "Did something move?" Frisk stopped in their tracks and saw that a dog had slowly risen from behind the station, looking around with shifty eyes. "Was it my imagination?" The dog raised two knives into view, but Frisk realized that the dog seemed to only see movement. They elected to stay still until it was safe to try something else, though they didn't know what. This theory was confirmed when the dog said, "I can only see moving things." This statement seemed a bit odd, considering the dog surely knew this information and wouldn't have to tell itself this, and Frisk almost shrugged their shoulders before remembering not to move. The dog continued menacingly, "If something WAS moving, for example, a human… I'll make sure it NEVER moves again!" Chara noted, "Nice knives. They look sharp, make sure you avoid them." "Well, you know, I was planning to get stabbed, good buddy, but I think with your stellar advice, I'll change my plans." "And you say I'm the jerky one."

Before Frisk could come up with a response, the dog, which they later elected to call Doggo, started prodding the air behind Frisk, where it last saw movement. Frisk didn't move, and Doggo seemed confused. Frisk waited and after several jabs, quickly petted the monster. The dog started freaking out, it's limbs flailing with reckless abandon, stabbing in all the wrong spots, as it yelled, "I'VE BEEN PET!" It then started yelling random things that rhymed with pet as it fell further into hysteria. After this, it calmed down and shivered as it said, "S-S-S-Something pet me. Something that isn't m-m-moving. I'm gonna need some dog treats for this!" The dog sunk behind their desk and Frisk shrugged as they claimed victory and walked away. "Hey, Frisk." "Yeah?" "I'm sorry too. For being a bit irritable. I've… been thinking. About stuff. Stuff I hadn't thought about in a long time. Maybe I'll tell you some other time, but right now let's just focus on getting out of here." Frisk could barely hold their excitement, knowing they just took a huge step in the direction of knowing what Chara knew, but kept that out of their voice as they said, "That sounds like a good plan to me."

Frisk walked a bit and nearly jumped out of their skin, when they suddenly noticed Sans standing in front of them and slightly to the left. They were trying not to step on cracks on the ground, a fun way to pass the time while walking, when they heard a noise. They assumed it was another Ice cap that wanted to show off, or that snowflake comedian; they didn't mind either of them. Instead, it was their good buddy Sans shifting his weight to face them. Frisk smiled at him and Sans began to talk. "Hey, here's something important to remember. My brother has a very special attack." "Oh what is it, a hug and a kiss?" Said Chara. "If you see a blue attack, don't move and it won't hurt you. Here's an easy way to keep it in mind. Imagine a stop sign. When you see a stop sign, you stop, right? Stop signs are red, so imagine a blue stop sign instead. Simple, right? When fighting, think about blue stop signs." Chara inhaled deeply before saying, "Okay that was literally the stupidest thing I have ever heard." "Well, how would you describe it to a small kid? I challenge you to come up with something better." "Well, I don't know, something other than a blue stop sign. Maybe, like ice. Ice has a blue tint to it, and you could say something like, when you think of ice, it's frozen, so when you see blue, you freeze." Chara waited for a while before inquisitively saying, "Frisk?" "I, uh, didn't expect you to come up with something better. Hold on, now I have to either admit defeat or find something better than that, and I never admit defeat." Chara had an edge of superiority when they said, "Oh, so I guess it's your turn to hush up for a while, hunh?" Chara waited and then heard sobbing. They freaked out and frantically said, "Hey, hey, whoa, I was just kidding, Frisk, take it easy." The crying turned to laughter and Frisk said, "I was kidding too. Gotcha! But no, seriously, I have nothing better. I submit, you win this round but I'll be back, congratulations, you are dominate, et cetera, et cetera. The tone became more and more melancholy as Frisk went on and Chara couldn't help but laugh.

"You okay, kiddo?" Both children gasped sharply and realized they had probably been standing there looking stupid for at least 20 seconds. Sans put a hand on their shoulder and stooped to their level. Frisk flashed him a smile and a thumbs-up before quickly scurrying north on another path. Sans called after them, "See ya around!" Frisk and Chara were panicking and rambled to each other in a symphony of confusion and fear that no one could ever hope to follow. Most of Frisk's fears revolved around looking like a total dweeb, while Chara's were about Sans becoming super suspicious about them and finding something he didn't like. The experience itself wasn't so harrowing, but there was something creepy about Sans' atmosphere, like he knew something about you that you didn't even know. And in that moment, they both felt like Sans could've told them a lot about themselves they didn't know and didn't want to know. Unbeknownst to them, Sans stood a moment, in the snow, hands in his pockets. "Hmm," he muttered before walking away.

The children caught their breath and tried to calm themselves. They felt like their heart was going 300 beats per minute, they sweated despite the cold, and they felt like it would never stop. Their chest hurt and they felt dizzy. If they had been a bit wiser or older, they might've called it a panic attack. They took a few moments, and when they had recovered, kept walking north. They found a nice looking snowman, alone in the center of a dead end. He spoke to them, in a surprisingly deep voice. "Hello, I am a snowman. I want to see the world, but I cannot move. If you would be so kind, traveller, please, take a piece of me and bring it very far away. Frisk nodded, and the snowman gratefully said, "Thank you," before allowing a piece of his middle portion to fall into Frisk's outstretched hands. They put it away and waved before turning back. "Do you think he's still there?" "I don't think so, let's check." Frisk slowly creeped around the corner and looked, not seeing Sans where he was before. "I think we're good."

The children walked East and found Sans and Papyrus again. "Okay, Frisk, before you say anything. I thought about what you said earlier, about giving them a chance. I've decided to do that. Starting right now." "Hey, I'm proud of you, buddy. We'll all be good friends soon, you'll see." They stepped forward and heard Papyrus say, "YOU'RE SO LAZY!" YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!" "I think that's called, 'sleeping.'" "EXCUSES, EXCUSES!" As Papyrus noticed the human and turned to face them, Chara said, "I take it back, I SO take it back." But it was too late. They promised to give them a chance and they would have to. Over the next hour or so, their abilities, and patience, would be tested to the breaking point. At least they had Frisk to help.


	5. The Japing Begins

"OH-HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES!" "Unfortunately, we have." Thought Chara. "IN ORDER TO STOP YOU, MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES! I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE, QUITE SHOCKING!" Frisk raised their eyebrows in a questioning manner and was rewarded with an explanation. "FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS THE INVISIBLE ELECTRICITY MAZE! WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THIS MAZE, THIS ORB WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP! SOUND LIKE FUN? BECAUSE!" Papyrus paused for dramatic effect, finger in the air. "THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE, IS ACTUALLY RATHER SMALL, I THINK. OK, YOU CAN GO AHEAD NOW." He finished cheerfully, holding a crystal orb in his gloved hands. "Couldn't we just have gone while he was talking?" "No, this is for his benefit, we're trying to cheer him up, so we do what he says, we let him monologue, and then we work this out." "Okay, I can accept that, but how are we going to do this puzzle? It's an invisible maze. Matter of fact, how is this a puzzle, in anyone's mind!? It's not a puzzle, it's just ridiculous!" It occurred to Frisk that this puzzle was practically impossible without pain. They didn't let that sink to Chara though, trying to prove to them that this could go well for all involved. "Well, uh, we just have to start with a step." Frisk took a step and Papyrus jolted with a painful sounding noise. After a quick recovery, Papyrus angrily faced his brother with a stomp of the foot. "SANS! WHAT DID YOU DO!?" "I think the human has to hold the orb." Papyrus' bad mood and anger immediately evaporated as he straightened himself and said, "OH, OKAY." Papyrus calmly walked around to a point of the maze and walked through. Frisk noticed the crunch of snow from his boots and could clearly see the prints he left wherever he went.

Papyrus took a winding but easy to follow path to the Human before tossing the beautiful orb in the air and saying. "HOLD THIS PLEASE!" Papyrus ran back to the start and made it just as the sphere landed softly in Frisk's hands. "Okay, now that we have it, we should make a show of it. Y'know, help the act." "Good idea, Chara. See? Now you're getting into it!" "I suppose, sometimes, it could be fun to solve puzzles with a nitwit." "Do you mean him or me?" "Yes." Both laughed and then Frisk turned their attention to the incredibly difficult puzzle at hand. They raised the orb above their head and put on a scared face. Then, they walked through the puzzle without so much as a hair raising on their head. Papyrus looked incredibly impressed and Sans winked at them. "INCREDIBLE! YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL! YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY… TOO EASILY!" They were worried Papyrus would catch on to his mistake, but he continued. "HOWEVER, THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE SO EASY! IT IS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS! YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED! I KNOW I AM. NYEH HEH HEH HEH heh heh." Once again he left them and his laugh faded into the air. "Hopefully the next puzzle will be something, ya know, solveable." "I'm sure Sans has us covered. Speaking of which…" Frisk turned their attention to Sans and handed them the orb before smiling at them, expecting them to talk.

"Hey, thanks. My brother seems like he's having fun. By the way, did you see that weird outfit he's wearing?" "Was there a way we couldn't?" "Chara don't be rude. You have to stop interrupting people." "Don't you do that for your fits of sarcasm?" "Yeah, but it's my body so I can tell you what to do, and not vice versa. Do as I say, not as I do, that sort of thing." They realized Sans was waiting for them. When they snapped back to attention and nodded, he continued. "We made that a few weeks ago for a costume party. He hasn't worn anything else since… keeps calling it his 'battle body.' Man, isn't my brother cool?" "Well-" "Chara." Frisk said in a warning tone. "Fine, I'll hold all questions and comments until the end of the presentation. Maybe." Sans didn't talk anymore, just seemed to be watching them. It reminded Frisk of the way other kids at the orphanage had watched an insect with interested curiosity of something below them. At the same time, he was so nice and funny to them, always with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes. Frisk didn't know what to think about him. "So, uh, did you have any jokes to make?" Frisk asked uneasily. Frisk could feel Chara using Frisk's eyes to stare back at the scary skeleton. Suddenly, they seemed extra uneasy and said, "You know, I forgot what I was going to say. Let's just move on. And from now on, let's not talk in front of him. Deal?" "Deal." Frisk liked Sans, but they couldn't help that they knew Frisk's secret pal, and they didn't want anyone to know; it made them feel different in a world that they were already an outsider in.

As they walked on, Frisk began another conversation. "So, anyways." Frisk took a deep breath and prepared for the backlash they were certainly going to get for their next sentence. They took a deep breath and said, "Okay, I think Papyrus is cool." They said it very fast, almost unintelligibly, and cringed a little as they waited. "I don't." Chara calmly retorted. "What?" "What do you mean, 'what?' I just don't think he's cool. That's my opinion." "No no, I get that, but like… I expected you to flip out or something." "Why? I told you I would give them a chance didn't I?" "Yeah. Yeah, you did. Sorry." Frisk was just realizing that they had considered Chara below them, almost since they met, and felt bad about this. The way they chose to live their life, the way of the pacifist, didn't make them better or worse than their friend. Well, maybe a little bit better, but it certainly didn't give them the right to harshly judge Chara and the actions they wished to take. It also didn't give them the right to assume the worst of Chara and they decided they would never do that again. They resolved to try their hardest to give Chara and their lifestyle the respect it deserved, just like how Chara tried to respect their own way, and their insistence on nonviolence. They were happy to have learned a lesson in humility and their smile reflected this. Then, they noticed a blue, rabbit-like man leaning on an ice cream cart who looked the opposite of happy. The cart was colorful with a red and yellow umbrella and a bright sign that declared, "Nice Cream for sale! Only 15G!"

"Hunh, Nice Cream. They must've misspelled their sign." "No, that's intentional, Frisk. Nice Cream is a sort-of popular treat down here. God knows why he's trying to sell it in this frozen hellscape, though." Frisk didn't know how Chara knew this, but as they looked at the depressed Nice Cream man, they couldn't care less. All they cared about was making his day better, which is exactly what they intended to do. As they approached, they heard the man mumble under his breath. "I don't understand why these aren't selling." "BECAUSE YOU'RE IN AN ICY WASTELAND SELLING FROZEN TREATS YOU IDIOT!" Chara yelled. Frisk couldn't help but smile and think to themselves, "That's the Chara I know and… appreciate? Yeah, that works." The Nice Cream man mumbled again, "It's the perfect weather for something cold." Chara sighed exasperated, probably wishing more than anything that people on the outside could hear them. Frisk made a small cough to alert the man. He looked up and immediately brightened to a level of excitement Frisk had yet to see Underground, catching them off guard. "OH! A CUSTOMER! Hello! Would you like some Nice Cream?" Frisk nodded and bought 4, and they filled their pockets with Nice Cream, so full they thought they could just barely carry anything else in their pockets if they tried, remembering Toriel's advice about storage space. They thanked the Nice Cream Guy and waved goodbye before walking away. The Nice Cream Guy waved back with a big smile, and said, "Have a super-duper day!" his day fulfilled.

Frisk's legs started to hurt so they decided to take a break and just sit in the snow for a bit. They liked the feeling of the cold on the parts of their body without cover, and they enjoyed balling up the snow, with no motive but boredom. As they sat there, something occurred to them. "So Chara, you seem to know a good deal about Underground. How long have you been… trapped down here?" "It's… a long story that happened a long time ago. But, uh, I came here long ago and then died, and now I'm here, stuck in your head." "Do you know why?" "I… might. I think I do, but I'd like to wait until later to tell you, or it wouldn't make any sense. Besides, I could be wrong. So once I'm sure, I'll tell you. I promise." There was silence for a while. "Is there anything you can tell me right now that might help us?" "Well, that Royal Guard Papyrus mentioned? It's a group of elite fighters meant to be on the watch for humans." "Why are they on the watch for humans?" "What do you mean 'Why are they on watch for humans?' Don't you know any-" Something seemed to occur to Chara about Frisk. "Nevermind that, it will all make sense later, you'll see what I mean. For the time being, just avoid anyone from the Royal Guard as much as possible, okay?" "Yeah, sure." "Good. We should probably get moving." "Alright, let's get back on our way." Frisk stood up and patted the snow off their body, stretched a little and prepared to move forward, whichever direction that was.

Frisk walked on and saw an odd looking course on the ground, carved out of the snow. A snowball rested on the ground inside the course. A bit away though, they saw Sans standing in the snow, seemingly relaxing against a tree. They decided to talk to Sans before investigating the odd course. "I've been thinking about selling some treats, too. Want some fried snow? It's just 5G." Frisk didn't know if the proposal was serious, but decided that Yes would be an appropriate response. They smiled and nodded to him. He replied, "Did I say 5G? I meant 50G." Frisk became even less sure and didn't want to accidentally spend the limited money they had, so they declined. Sans, unfazed said, "You're right. That's still too low." Frisk forced a laugh and hurriedly walked towards the game they saw earlier, mentally reminding themselves repeatedly. "Donttalkdonttalkdonttalkdonttalk." Over and over again as fast as they could process, and Chara obliged, saying nothing until they stood in front of the course. They brought a hand up to their face and cupped their chin with it in a way that made it look like a thinking pose. Now, it looked like they were trying to solve a puzzle instead of just standing there.

"Okay, I think we're good now, Chara." "Great. So what the hell is this?" "Uhh, well... " Frisk walked onto the course, not touching the ball, and walked the entirety of it. They walked southbound and saw a large hole in the ground. "So, there's tha- Whoa!" They thought as they slipped on the ground. They caught themselves and found themselves on the other side of a large patch of what appeared to be slippery ice. "Note to self: Watch your step." "Okay, Frisk, I think I know what this is. It's a golf course." "What?" "Y'know, golf. The sport? Are you telling me you don't know what golf is?" Frisk thought a moment. "Uh, no, never heard of it." "Well, I'll tell you, golf is the best sport of all time. You take a stick, a golf club, and you hit a ball until it enters the hole. You try to get the ball into the hole in as few hits as possible. There are usually 18 holes in a course. It's the best." Chara seemed very happy, almost nostalgic as they talked about this sport, presumably their favorite. "Oh. Guess we should play a round, hunh?" "Yeah, but there's no golf clubs." "Hmm, maybe we just kick it?" "That just sounds like soccer." "Well, I like soccer." "Are you telling me you know soccer and not golf? What was even your life?" They said in a joking and purposefully off tone, as though Chara had to talk down to a simpleton like Frisk. "Do you want to play or not?" "Fine, I guess it'll work." Frisk turned to go start the game, and noticed that Sans was nowhere to be found. "I didn't even hear him leave. You?" "I heard nothing but your ignorance, which came through loud and clear." Frisk rolled their eyes, smile on their face, as they prepared in front of the ball. "Okay, here goes nothing."

Frisk kicked the ball and it flew before running into the wall at the opposite end. "Holding one, shooting two." "What?" Frisk thought as they ran to be behind the ball again. "It's what golf players use to keep track of their shots." "Oh." Frisk kicked it again and it stopped just inside the ice patch. "Oh darn it. Hey, is it getting smaller?" "Is it?" It was. The ball was getting visibly smaller, and they could see the ice was causing it to melt faster. "Hurry! We can't finish the game if it gets too small!" Frisk ran, forgetting about the ice, and nearly fell. Their fumble caused the kick they executed to be poor, and the ball barely moved. They turned around and kicked again, hoping to go for the hole. Their aim was off and it bounced around the rectangle the hole resided in, finally, as the snowball neared its end, Frisk nudged it in. A purple flag rose from it, with a note attached to the pole. The note said, "Even when you felt trapped, you took notes and achieved the end of "Ball." "Oh, so they call it Ball. Easy to remember, I guess." "Hey, what's that?" Frisk noticed a shine at the bottom of the hole, they reached further in and pulled out 2G. "Oh, a reward. Sweet. What was our final count?" "Oh, uh, I lost track. Usually, the golf ball doesn't shrink as you try to hit it, so I panicked and lost count." "Aww, such a shame. Oh well, Let's go check what's over there." pointing to the east of where Sans used to be standing. "Ugh, Frisk, must we explore everywhere?" "Yes, maybe we'll find good stuff." "Fine. Lead on." Frisk smirked thinking to themself, "Like you could stop me."

Frisk walked over and as they got closer, noticed two more stations, like the earlier sentry stations. The signs they had only had one word. The left said "His." and the right said, "Hers." They were identical to each other. Another sign in between them said. "SMELL DANGER RATING: Snow Smell - Snowman WHITE rating. Can become YELLOW rating. Unsuspicious smell - Puppy BLUE rating. Smell of rolling around. Weird Smell - Humans. GREEN rating, Destroy at all costs!" "Well, that's not good for us." "Whatever, let's keep moving." Frisk walked back South, past the Ball game, the only path that seemed available to them. They saw Sans and Papyrus in front of them. Frisk brightened and was about to go talk to them when Chara said, "HOLD on a second! How did Sans get there!? We just explored every place in the nearby area, and he disappeared while we experimented with the Ball game. There is no possible way that he walked past us and we didn't notice, the snow crunches every time you walk, and he didn't loop around. Something is fishy about that guy! I'm telling you!" "You might be right, but until I have a reason not to trust them, I'll keep doing it, and you will too, if you're a kid of your word."

Chara sighed, knowing they were being played, that Frisk was using their own pride against them, but deciding to continue going along with it despite that. "Fine, let's go talk to them." Frisk put extra oomph into their footsteps, practically stomping, to make sure they noticed the arrival of their arch-nemesis. Papyrus turned to face them and then declared, "HUMAN! I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR-" Papyrus looked around confused for a moment before rotating his head to face his brother. "SANS! WHERE'S THE PUZZLE!?" "It's right there. On the ground. Trust me, there's no way they can get past this one." Papyrus looked away with a gloved hand to his chin and seemed to be considering his options; admit defeat, or trust his lazy brother's puzzle? As he did this, Sans took the opportunity to wink at Frisk and Frisk gave Sans a thumbs-up back, ignoring the sound of Chara gagging in their head. Papyrus made up his mind, and put his hands on his… hips? as he waited expectantly for the human to continue. When Frisk didn't immediately move, he nodded and made a wave of his hand. Frisk trusted Sans, mostly, but Chara's pestering had left a pretty big seed of doubt in their head, and they nervously approached the piece of paper, sticking out of the snow. They hesitantly picked it up, expecting pain, and after none arrived, they stopped cringing, opened their eyes, and held it in both hands. They examined the paper and it appeared to be a normal word search. They fully intended to solve it, but to their dissatisfaction realized that they had nothing to write with. As such, they took it and folded it before putting it in their pocket, next to all the Nice Cream. They walked up to Papyrus and gave them a smile. Papyrus looked confused for a moment, then enraged at the puzzle's evident failure.

"SANS! THAT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" "Whoops." He shrugged. "I knew I should have used today's crossword instead." Papyrus did a double-take before seeming even angrier than before. Frisk held in a giggle; they thought it was cute. "WHAT!? CROSSWORD!? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT! IN MY OPINION-" Papyrus added a flourish of his cape, scarf, and hand before continuing, "-JUNIOR JUMBLE IS EASILY THE HARDEST." Sans did his own double-take before responding, "What? Really, dude? That easy-peasy word-scramble? That's for baby bones." Papyrus held a hand to his chest and the other stretched out towards his brother in a talk-to-the-hand sort of way; it seemed as though Papyrus was hurt by his brother's ignorance. "UN. BELIEVABLE." They suddenly jerked their whole body to face the human child before yelling, "HUMAN! SOLVE THIS DISPUTE!" Frisk didn't have time to think, they just had to react, so they decided agreeing with Papyrus was best. After all, wasn't this all for his benefit? Frisk was pretty shy when it came to talking to other people, however, as long as they weren't in their head, so they just pointed to Papyrus and nodded. Papyrus swelled with pride, laughed, then said, "YES! HUMANS MUST BE VERY INTELLIGENT!" Frisk blushed a little before Papyrus continued. "IF THEY ALSO FIND JUNIOR JUMBLE SO DIFFICULT! NYEH! HEH! HEH!" Papyrus did their usual laugh, but put emphasis on each individual "NYEH!" before leaving.

They took a large side step to face Sans and looked expectantly. Sans patted them on the back and left a hand on their shoulder as he said, "Thanks for saying junior jumble just to appease my brother. Yesterday he got stumped trying to 'solve' the horoscope." Frisk laughed lightly before leaving with a wave. Sans waved back, looking happy with his joke that could be a true story, but Frisk didn't care to ask. Frisk turned away and calmly walked down the path. "We're clear." "Oh my God." Chara said, sounding as though they would facepalm and put their head in their heads if they could. Frisk looked to their left and there was a table with a plate of spaghetti and a table with a microwave. As Frisk approached, they noticed the white stuff on the spaghetti that they assumed was parmesan was actually snow. A note was on the ground, and they decided to read it before investigating the rest. The note seemed to be written by Papyrus, in all caps.

It read, "HUMAN! PLEASE ENJOY THIS SPAGHETTI" Frisk glanced at the spaghetti before reading the rest of the message, all in parentheses. "(LITTLE DO YOU KNOW, THIS SPAGHETTI IS A TRAP! DESIGNED TO ENTICE YOU! YOU'LL BE SO BUSY EATING IT, THAT YOU WON'T REALIZE THAT YOU AREN'T PROGRESSING! THOROUGHLY JAPED AGAIN BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS!)" At the bottom of the page, he signed it, "NYEH HEH HEH, PAPYRUS." Frisk put the note down and walked to the spaghetti. They tried to pick up the fork, but it resisted. They pulled with all their strength, and it wouldn't budge. They tried the same with the plate itself, also stuck to the table. The spaghetti itself was inedible, it would be comparable to trying to eat a rock. They walked to the microwave and noted that all the settings said, "Spaghetti."

"Well, I don't know about you, Chara, but I feel thoroughly japed. Severely Japed. Monumentally Ja-" "You can stop now." Chara said, pretending to be annoyed. Frisk got a twinkle in their eye and smiled wide. "Y'know Chara…" "You can't be doing this." "I'd say whoever made this microwave…" "FRISK, I SWEAR TO GOD!" "Had a great noodle in their head!" There was nothing but silence for a while, until Chara calmly said. "Hunh. Good one." "What? You aren't mad?" "No, because you see, I've realized something. I realized that you like these jokes, but you tell them mostly to get a reaction out of me. As such, I refuse to stoop to your level and get mad." "Oh. I see. That's very civil of you." "Indeed." "So I guess you wouldn't mind if I made up some more?" Chara hesitated, before saying. "Of course not. Pun your heart out. Have at it." "Well, some would say that cooking up this spaghetti would be impastable, but I prefer to look on the bright side and consider the pastabilities." Frisk could feel the emotional cloud that they thought of as Chara weaken, its happy facade falling apart. "Nice one, got any more?" Chara seemed to say through gritting teeth. "Well, I don't know if I do, but I do want to tagliatelle you that I'm sorry for doing this to you. Sometimes I just need to tell jokes to feel better. Do you see what I'm spaghettin at?" Chara couldn't take it any more and said. "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! GOD! YOUR PUNS ARE SO AWFUL! I HATE THAT I LOVE THEM!"

There was a sound as if Chara quickly covered their mouth. "Y-you like my puns?" Chara sighed and said, "Yeah, I guess I do. I've pretended not to, but I have to admit that they get pretty funny. Especially when they're really cheesy." "Was that meant to be a pun?" "Yeah, because you put cheese on spaghetti and stu- Y'know what, screw you, that joke was funny!" "Suuuure it was." Chara growled and Frisk laughed hard. They felt better, not just about where they were, but about everything. They filled with that feeling that they could push on, right to the end of the Underground, and decided to move forward with that in mind. "It was funny though, right?" Chara asked, seemingly stretching out for some positive reinforcement on their pun skills. Frisk shrugged and said, "Enh, it was alfredoright." "Okay, you really stretched for that one." Frisk snickered and said "Yeah, I know. Let's get moving." "Sounds like a plan." And Frisk walked once more through the white snow, looking forward to the rest of their adventure.


	6. The Greatest of Dogs

Frisk walked at a brisk pace and found a sign that said, "WARNING: Dog Marriage." "Okay, it's official. The Underground is a land of nonsense that I will never fully understand. That being said, let's keep going." Though Frisk. "At least it's more fun than an abusive orphanage, right?" "Definitely." They were broken out of their train of thought by a yipping bark that cut through the quiet of the snowy forest. Frisk turned to face an adorable dog, standing on it's hind legs adorned with armor, carrying a stone dagger and shield. Their simultaneous reactions were, "Awww, it's so cute and fluffy!" and "Okay, seriously, how does it even hold that shield and sword!? It doesn't even have hands, it has paws!" Frisk attempted to pet the dog, careful to avoid the sharp blade. They barely moved their hand and the dog got excited, so excited that they tackled the young child, hurting them. "Owww." Frisk slowly said as they got up, examining a scrape on their elbow from the fall. "Okay, cute dog, still need to be careful. Got it." Frisk lightly touched the dog and something odd happened; Frisk could swear that the dog's neck had grown. They knew they could probably leave and not fight the dog, but curiosity got the better of them. Chara didn't object, they were just as curious as Frisk, if not more.

Frisk sat there petting the dog for over a half-hour, and eventually it's neck was about as long as a football field, and was so excited it had peed itself at least a dozen times. At first, Chara found the dog's excitement and joy to be infectious, but after awhile, they started begging Frisk to stop petting it. Frisk couldn't stop themselves from petting the dog, it just looked so cute and so happy to be loved. Eventually, though, common sense took over and Frisk stood, patted the snow off their pants, then walked on, leaving the dog in the snow with a wagging tail and lolling tongue. "Frisk, something is significantly wrong with you." "Okay, you have no right whatsoever to say that." "Hey, what do you mean?" "I 'mean,' that the literal first words you spoke to me were, 'Just kill him. Spare us from this insufferable monologue, and end his suffering.'" "Well, you know, he was annoying." "I do agree with you on that, but you can't just kill all your problems." "Well, you can, but... " "Chara." "Yeah, I know, I know. I haven't said to kill anything in like, 3 hours, get off my case." Frisk heard a crunch under their foot and frantically looked to the floor, worried they stepped on something innocent, happy to see they only stepped on fresh snow. "Okay, Frisk, we need to be more aware of our surroundings while we're communicating." "Agreed." There was a pause as Frisk thought of something else, staring at their feet. "Something seem up with this snow to you?" "How so?" "Well, it's really fresh compared to the rest of the snow around it, and it's only in a very special and conspicuous square, nowhere else."

They started to brush the snow away with their hand and found two lines of red paint under the layer of snow, forming an X. "Well that's… odd." "Keep brushing." Frisk brushed away until a map slowly revealed itself, etched into the snow. They pieced together that it was a map of the local area using some trees and other landmarks. They walked north to a clearing where the "X" was. They reached into the snow and felt a handle in their hands, They gripped it and pulled, hearing a clicking sound. "I guess that did something, somewhere." They walked back to the map and saw that some spikes blocking a path had lowered. They walked down the path, but were soon ambushed and surrounded by two large beings in dark cloaks. They each carried a large axe and frightened Frisk, who noticed a snout poking out from each of the hoods. They got closer to Frisk, very close, before raising their snouts to the sky. "What's that smell?" One said, while the other said, "Where's that smell?" In a more feminine bark. "If you're a smell…" The other continued, "Identify yoursmellf!" The creatures that were now without a doubt dogs frantically ran around Frisk, sniffing aggressively. They came back to their previous spots next to Frisk and said, "Hmm, here's that weird smell. It makes me want to eliminate." "Uh oh." Though both children. "Eliminate you!"

Frisk found themselves thrust into yet another battle, this time with a blind dog couple. Their little trip got weirder and weirder as they went. Frisk's brain got to work on a peaceful way to avoid the conflict. "Okay, so we know that they go based off of smell." Chara chimed in, "Hey, remember that sign earlier? It said that the smell of rolling around was like puppies. They wouldn't attack puppies." "Are you suggesting we trick them?" "No, I'm recommending and insisting that we trick them." "Well, you've convinced me, let's go team!" Frisk dropped to the floor and rolled around, giggling a bit. "Okay, Chara, when this is over, I wouldn't mind doing this a few more times. It's really fun!" "You can roll your heart out, after you avoid the axes headed towards us!" Frisk stood and nodded as the aforementioned executioners swung at them, one high, one low. They ducked, then when the blade moved past their head, they jumped over the one aimed at their shins. They held out their hand in front of the male one, hoping they would re-sniff them. The plan worked, and the dog did a double-take before asking, "What! Smells like a-" Before he could finish, his beloved wife asked, "Are you actually a little puppy!?" Frisk did their best impression of a puppy, panting with their tongue out and holding their hands in front of them as they squatted. "You know they can't see you, right?" "Shh! I'm getting into my role, playing my part." "You really are an idiot." "Now you sound like the flower."

An axe handle hit them in the gut and another smacked against their right cheek. They fell to the floor with a grunt and then coughed. They were bleeding from their mouth, nose, and a couple different cuts and scrapes, and their chest hurt bad; it was the worst shape they had been in since the fall. "Well, that hurt." They croaked. "Oh God! Come on, Frisk, let's get this over with and get you out of here so you can recover. I didn't think a dog could hurt us that much." "I'll be fine, but we do need to end this. And I know just how to do it." Frisk quickly reached out and pet both of them. They were awestruck, amazed by the concept of a dog petting another dog. In their amazement, Frisk was able to get them to put their weapons down. "Dogs can pet other dogs?" "A new world has opened up for us. Thanks, weird puppy!" "You're welcome." Thought Frisk. They hobbled to a nearby tree, clutching their chest, and groaned as they slid to the ground. They pulled a Nice Cream out of their pocket and pulled off the wrapper. As they ate it, they felt a thought come with the chill of the treat. Like a heavenly vision, or an angel, the compliment, "Is this as sweet as you?" floated through their consciousness. Frisk sat their for a time, feeling better already and improving by the minute. "You had me worried there, Frisk. I thought I would lose you." "Aww, you do care." The cloud of emotion seemed to fluster for a minute, like it didn't know what to do. Frisk realized, they were probably blushing. "Well, yeah. You're… my friend. And if you died, I would probably die again, too." Frisk was satisfied that they mattered to Chara, for whatever reasons, and with that thought decided to move on.

Frisk stood and kept walking, noticing an odd formation of rocks ahead. As they approached they saw… pressure pads? They had an X on them, but seemed capable of displaying other shapes, like circles and triangles. Frisk noticed a sign and figured it might shed light on the subject, and why spikes were blocking the path ahead of them. Papyrus was on the other side of the spikes, looking like he was impatiently waiting for his brother to show up, looking the opposite direction. The sign said, "Turn every X into an O." "O, I get it." They said with emphasis on the first letter. "Frisk, remember how I said I didn't want you to die? I take it back. I take it all back. I'll find another human in another hundred years or so, and I'll cling to them." Frisk chuckled as they triggered both switches and stepped on a button. The spikes dropped with a clang, and Papyrus turned around to face the noise.

"WHAT!? HOW DID YOU AVOID MY TRAP?" "Trap? Does he mean this?" "AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, IS THERE ANY LEFT FOR ME?" There was another moment of confusion before Frisk realized that he was referring to the spaghetti earlier. Frisk said, "I left it." Papyrus shook before asking, "REALLY!? WOWIE. YOU RESISTED THE FLAVOR OF MY HOMECOOKED PASTA, JUST SO YOU COULD SHARE IT WITH ME?" "No, I left it because it's an abomination to Italian cuisine and was entirely inedible." Frisk thought, while nodding their head yes with a smile. "FRET NOT, HUMAN! I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS-!" "He uses that term generously, enh Frisk?" "Indeed. Along with Great." Both laughed internally as Papyrus continued, "WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU COULD EVER WANT!" "I think you already have." "I thought you said you liked this guy?" "I do, but I like you and I still make lots of jokes about you, too. It's just easier, because he thinks he's cool, and he is, but he's cool in a goofy way. It's hard to explain, but I like him nonetheless." "Even though I'd like to say I disagree, I do see what you mean. His goofy enthusiasm is infectious, as much as I hate to admit it. I guess I like him too."

They hadn't noticed that Papyrus had already laughed and made his exit. "Oh come on! How does this keep happening!? Why do we lose track of everything when we talk!?" Chara exclaimed, frustrated. "I think it's a kink in how we do this. I have to focus to talk to you and not just think something. Maybe we'll get better at it in the future. It is telepathy, ya know; kind of hard to master." Chara grumbled as Frisk followed Papyrus and walked up to him, and he began to talk. "MY BROTHER STARTED A SOCK COLLECTION RECENTLY. HOW SADDENING. SOMETIMES I WONDER WHAT HE WOULD DO WITHOUT SUCH A COOL GUY TAKING CARE OF HIM! NYEH HEH HEH!" "Wait, wait, wait." "I'm listening." Frisk said as they walked away, to prevent Papyrus from catching on. "Why would Sans even want a sock collection? He wears pink slippers! He doesn't need socks! Socks are for people with skin!" "Why does this bother you so much?" Frisk chuckled. "I don't know but it does! Things that don't make sense make me angry, things like the world!" Frisk stopped in their tracks as they saw another rock formation, this one very odd, asymmetrical, and the rocks seemingly random in their placement. As he frowned and examined it, Papyrus came walking up behind them.

"HUMAN!" Frisk turned to face him, hands on their hips, foot gently tapping, ready for an explanation. "HMMM, HOW DO I SAY THIS? YOU WERE TAKING A LONG TIME TO ARRIVE, SOOO…" Papyrus trailed off for a time and Frisk raised an eyebrow at him. "I DECIDED TO IMPROVE THIS PUZZLE BY ARRANGING THE SNOW TO LOOK MORE LIKE MY FACE." "Oh, I see the resemblance now." "UNFORTUNATELY, THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND." "Oh, we just assumed it was rocks, it's just frozen snow." "Fascinating, can we go yet?" "Let him finish." "NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT! AND, AS USUAL, MY LAZY BROTHER IS NOWHERE AROUND." "Sometimes I get the feeling that he's always around." "Yeah." "I SUPPOSE WHAT I AM SAYING IS, WORRY NOT, HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SOLVE THIS CONUNDRUM!" He slammed his gloved fist against his armor as he looked to the sky in a valorous pose, cape flowing in the chilly breeze. "THEN WE CAN BOTH PROCEED! MEANWHILE, FEEL FREE TO TRY THE PUZZLE YOURSELF! I'LL TRY NOT TO GIVE AWAY THE ANSWER!" Papyrus sat down, fingers to his lower jaw in a thinking pose, while Frisk got right to work. While Frisk listened attentively, Chara solved the puzzle as they waited for Papyrus to finish rambling on. Chara may not have liked puzzles as much as Frisk, but they were certainly intelligent enough to solve them.

Frisk, under directions from Chara, solved the puzzle in only 7 seconds, to the amazement of Papyrus, who sprang up from his seated position. "WOW! YOU SOLVED IT! AND YOU DID IT ALL WITHOUT MY HELP! INCREDIBLE! I'M IMPRESSED! YOU MUST CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO! WELL, I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE THE NEXT PUZZLE THEN! IT MIGHT EVEN BE TOO EASY FOR YOU! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus left and Frisk thought in a dramatic, movie trailer voice, "Every puzzle is too easy for… the Determined Duo!" "We're not calling ourselves that." "Oh come on, Chara! Determined Duo!" Chara took a deep breath and sighed. "Determined Duo." They said morosely. "Yay!" "And he was right about one thing, at least one of us likes puzzles." "Correction, I love them, and you like them." Chara scoffed and said, "I do not!" "Yes you do! I didn't ask you to solve the last one! You did it on your own! I could've solved it when I was done with Papyrus, but you did it. That means something; it means you're warming up to them, buddy." The swirl of emotions seemed confused again, what Frisk now perceived as a blush, as Chara stuttered to defend himself. "W-well, uh, shut up." "Ha! It's true!" "I suppose you could say that. Maybe puzzles can be fun if you try them, now can we move on?" "Sure, sure." Frisk walked over to find that Sans was there, on the other side of where the spikes had retracted.

"Uh, Frisk? How long was he there?" "I don't know. Let's go talk to him." "If you say so." Frisk walked over and smiled at Sans, who was already smiling to begin with, but it looked like he tried to smile harder as a greeting before resorting to a quick wave. "Good job on solving it so quickly. You didn't even need my help. Which is great, 'cause I love doing absolutely nothing." Sans winked and Frisk giggled before walking away. "Honestly, Frisk, I don't think he would've been much help even if he did try." Frisk considered this point, not really having any evidence that he would be good or bad at puzzles. "That might be a fair assessment. He does have trouble with crosswords, after all." They both laughed and Frisk noticed Papyrus and Sans waiting up ahead with something that looked like a monochromatic dance floor in front of them. "Oh, what fresh hell is this?" Thought Chara. "Guess we'll find out, hunh?" Papyrus brightened when he saw them and called out,

"HEY! IT'S THE HUMAN!" "I am, in fact, the human." "YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE!" "Am I?" "IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT DR. ALPHYS!" "Wait, does he call everyone great, not just himself? Frisk, we need to look into this later, maybe he's not as vain as we thought." Frisk shrugged internally as Papyrus continued. "YOU SEE THESE TILES!? ONCE I THROW THIS SWITCH, THEY WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE COLOR! EACH COLOR HAS A DIFFERENT FUNCTION!" "We're going to be here a while, hunh?" "RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE!" "Hey, Chara, remember when I found out you like puns and made a pun about impastabilities?" "Yes, I remember when I confessed a… tolerance for puns-" "Noooo, you take it back a step, you confessed more than a tolerance, you can do it again." "Fine, I confessed a love for puns and just a bit ago I confessed mild enjoyment of puzzles, now can we please listen to what he's saying!" "-PINK TILES, THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING. STEP ON THEM ALL YOU LIKE. HOW WAS THAT!? UNDERSTAND!?" "Ok, Chara. I know we heard none of that, but I don't really want to, and I think we'll be fine without it." "Are you really so lazy that you're going to take your chances on a puzzle without basic information?" "Yeah, now I think you see why I like Sans so much. We can relate to each other." Chara groaned and Frisk smiled as they nodded towards Papyrus.

"GREAT, THEN THERE'S ONE LAST THING! THIS PUZZLE IS ENTIRELY RANDOM! WHEN I PULL THIS SWITCH, IT WILL MAKE A PUZZLE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! NOT EVEN I WILL KNOW THE SOLUTION! NYEH HEH HEH! GET READY!" Papyrus moved his cape with a flourish and dramatically grabbed the handle of the box. "Okay, Chara, I think I regret my choice." "Nope. It's too late Frisk, you made a poor decision, now you live with the consequences." Chara had an air of superiority to their voice that they weren't even trying to hide, like they wanted Frisk to learn a lesson from this. Papyrus pulled down the switch, grunting with effort. The tiles suddenly sprang into several bright colors, blue, orange, yellow, red, pink… Frisk was almost blinded by their dazzling brightness and stupefied by the enormity of the task in front of them: surviving the puzzle. The tiles switched between the colors, getting faster and faster, until, with a click, they locked in place as a band of pink with two bands of red on the top and bottom, a straight path to victory. Papyrus looked utterly dumbfounded, what just happened didn't even seem to register with him for a moment. When he realized his puzzle had simply failed to become a puzzle, he got out of there quickly, to save face. Frisk restrained themselves from giggling, using the same stoic, emotionless face they had held most of their journey, and most of their lives; emotions where they came from led to hurt, either from the other children or from the people meant to care for them. Chara was just as surprised as Papyrus, speechless and a little disappointed that Frisk's laziness didn't have a consequence.

Frisk walked to Sans to hear what he had to say this time. "Actually, that spaghetti from earlier, it wasn't too bad for my brother." "You mean the frozen brick made of smaller, tubular, frozen bricks? That spaghetti!?" Inquired Chara. "Since he started cooking lessons, he's been improving a lot. I bet if he keeps it up, next year he'll even make something edible." "Oh. I get it now." Chara seemed embarrassed, jumping to conclusions almost ruined Sans' joke, not that he would admit that it was worth anything anyway. They turned away from Sans and looked ahead to see another sentry station amidst massive statues of dogs, made of snow. Most of them were broken or incomplete, depicting a dog with an exceptionally long neck. "So Frisk, does this, uh, seem familiar to you?" "It looks a lot like that dog from earlier, the cute one." "You mean the cute one that we turned into an affront to nature?" "Yes, but a cute affront to nature." They agreed it was probably that dog, but walked over to a nearby deer person in a sweater to confirm their suspicions. They gestured towards the statues and gave a questioning look. The deer explained, "A dog just rushed in here, filled with inspiration. It kept trying to build a snowdog that expressed its own emotions. But, as it built, it kept getting more excited about the sculpture. Its neck got longer and longer, and it added more and more snow, until…" The deer paused. "It was rather sad to watch, but I couldn't turn away." Frisk smiled and waved before leaving, their way of thanking them. "So, that was definitely the poor dog you disfigured." "Oh shut up, it sounds like he does this all the time, I'm sure he gets excited by all sorts of stuff, like, I don't know, the wind. I made him happy." "Yeah, I guess that's all that matters." There was a nice moment of silence as they both agreed and were very happy to do so.

Another puzzle soon came across their path, another one comprised of X's and O's. Their was slippery ice all around the switches, so Frisk would have to calculate their next moves. After some planning, aided by Chara, Frisk confidently ran onto the ice, quickly catching their balance and landing on a switch. They ran from switch to switch, ice to ice, until they could reach the button. They stepped on the button and a pathway appeared in front of them. They slid across the ice one more time, down a hallway where snow fell harder than anywhere else, accumulating in a pile on their head. They shook it off, brushing away the remains before forging on. The path split again, and they decided to continue moving forward, noticing a bunch of snow poffs and a sentry station. They walked up to the first one and Frisk smiled as they resolved to carefully investigate each one of the poffs, in hopes of angering Chara for some laughs.

"This is a snow poff." "Yes, I see. Very observant of you pal, I'm proud." Frisk knelt down to another one and moved it around a bit. "And this… is a snow poff." Frisk said with a dramatic wave of their hand. "Frisk, there are lots of snow poffs." "This, however, is a snow poff." "Frisk, I get it." "Surprisingly, it's a snow poff." "Frisk, they're all snow poffs." "Snow poff." Chara sighed and said, "Please stop." "Is it really a snow poff?" "You know it is, Frisk." "Behold! A snow poff!" "I hate you." Frisk knelt down to another and shoved their hands into it. They quickly recoiled from it after feeling something in their hand. "Woah!" "Are you okay!?" "Yeah, I'm not hurt. It felt cold, but soft." Frisk slowly put their hand back in, very cautious, before closing around a small, silky object. They pulled out their hand to find a silken bag, like a coin purse, and opened it to find 30G. "What is this?" Frisk was referring to the purse, but Chara pretended that they didn't know that. "Well you see, Frisk, when people want things, they trade it for currency, which can be used to buy other things. You just found some of that currency." Frisk couldn't help but laugh at the words Chara spoke, each dripping with sarcasm. They took the coin purse and put all the G they had found in it, electing to keep it. Then they walked to a path that was so thin only one person could pass, finding a snow poff in the way. As they bent down to clear it out of the way, a tail popped out. Frisk pulled back a bit, but then a dog's head poked out with a small bark. The dog looked very excited, like a puppy. "Awwwww! We'll just get it out of the way. But first, let's pe-" Their extended hand was suddenly interrupted as the snow in front of them fell away and a suit of armor twice their size rose up. The dog rested inside it, and barked once before gripping it's spear tighter. Frisk gulped and Chara panicked inside, "NOT A SMALL DOG, NOT A SMALL DOG, NOT CUTE, VERY DANGEROUS, VERY BAD!"

Frisk got some distance between them and started working on a game plan. They held absolutely still, and the Greater Dog simply stood and watched them. They decided to call it over and then pet it. They bent their knees and patted their thighs, clicking with their mouth and saying "Here, doggy doggy!" The Greater Dog bounded over, flecking slobber everywhere so thick that Frisk had to cover their eyes. They also had to dodge and be careful, because the dog was not careful with its spear and it was swinging all around as they approached. The dog stood in front of Frisk, seemingly seeking affection, which Frisk was happy to provide. They pet the dog, reaching out on tiptoes in order to do so. The dog sank and curled himself into a giant ball of steel and fur on Frisk's lap. Frisk gently rubbed the dog around the neck, and it dozed off to sleep. "See Chara, that wasn't so ba-" A chunk of steel smacked Frisk in the face as the dog suddenly leaped up, more excited than ever. They rubbed their cheek where they were hurt, opening and closing their mouth to test if they still had a functioning jaw. The Greater Dog patted the ground with its front paws, demanding Frisk do something else. Frisk couldn't think of anything else, but then remembered the stick in their hand. They threw it, and the dog fetched it and brought it back. The cycle repeated many times, until the dog nearly collapsed from exhaustion. The dog was done fighting, but Frisk wanted to pet it more anyways, and petted it a bit more before asking it not to fight.

The dog jumped out of their armor, accepting the pets, and soon after the mercy. The dog didn't want to hurt the best petter they had ever met, so they jumped back into their armor backwards and walked away. Frisk decided to go back and check out the other path before continuing, seeing a bridge and Papyrus in the distance.


	7. Snowdin

Frisk was still rubbing their jaw as they walked down a path. " _You okay?_ " "Yeah, I'll be fine. Might get a bruise, though." "What's up?" Sans' voice arose to their right, and they jumped back, startled, hand over their chest. "What the actual hell, Sans!?" Thought Frisk. "Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to frighten ya." Frisk straightened up, composing themselves, smiled at him, then walked forward, eyes on the snowy ground. " _Okay, I think that was on purpose this time._ " "Think so?" Before Chara could answer, Frisk thought they heard something behind them and whipped around. They saw Sans still there, watching them with a smile. Frisk waved and turned around. Somehow, Sans stood about 10 feet in front of them, still smiling. Frisk's eyes widened. " _Uh, Frisk?_ " Chara reached out for a response, terror plain in their voice. Frisk turned back, and there he was, one half of the skeleton brothers, standing casually. They turned around again, and Sans was there, with no pupils and a beaming smile, but no words came. He gave a small nod, before disappearing altogether. Frisk and Chara's shared mind was reeling. One second Sans is there, an ever so brief moment of darkness, and then he's gone, without a trace. Frisk felt like sitting in the snow in the fetal position for a couple of hours, just to feel better, and they felt like Chara was wetting themself inside their head, but just then they heard a yell to one side.

"HEY! Get out of here, you delinquent!" "What?" Frisk turned to face an odd creature that looked sort of like a reindeer crossed with an ant, with a reindeer's body and an ant's mandible, filled with sharp teeth. The creature seemed to have random things strewn about them, like a picture of a monster, streamers made of pipe cleaners, and a box balancing precariously on it's back. " _Frisk, quick question, what even IS that?_ " "Don't know, but it doesn't look happy." "Are you here to defile me more, like all the other miserable reprobates!?" The creature yelled. Frisk had an idea and held their hands up in a peaceful stance as they slowly walked over and removed the box. It was stuck to the fur and Frisk had to pull hard, causing the Gyftrot to reflexively kick it's legs up. Frisk nimbly dodged them, and looked at the box; it was a box of non-dog-related raisins. The creature said, "That feels a little better." " _Oh, I see your plan._ " Gyftrot's face softened a bit, but it still looked angry. It started throwing wrapped presents at Frisk, first shuffling them around. They got a glimpse of one of them having the light blue tint that some monster attacks had. Frisk remembered Sans' blue stop sign talk and got in the way of that present right before it was thrown. Frisk held perfectly still and the magical attack did no damage. They breathed again and calmly approached the creature, before removing the streamers from his antlers, careful not to hurt themselves against the sharp edges. "Even better." His eyes widened a bit, and his mouth stopped seeming as vicious.

But the monster wasn't satisfied yet. It raised it's antlers, and started swirling them in the air, seeming to summon the beautiful but deadly winds around them, throwing clumps of sub-zero temperature snow at the human. Frisk struggled to dodge them all, especially with the immense cold that the winds brought, but they made it through. They then removed the final decoration, now known to be a picture of some jerky, teenaged, monster with a confident smirk. The Gyftrot let out a sigh of relief. "A weight has been lifted. Thank you child, for righting the wrongs of others." Gyftrot happily galloped away, seemingly filled with new life and purpose. Frisk was happy that was over, and happier that it gave them a distraction from the downright unexplainable events that transpired just before. "Okay. Soooo, Chara… We need to talk about what happened." " _Do we?_ " "Yes, we need to understand what Sans can do, and what he might do. To us." Chara sighed and a chill swept through the both of them. Frisk could feel Chara's anxiety and fear permeating every fold of their brain. " _Okay, you start._ " "Well, he can seemingly teleport. We know this for sure. He can seemingly tell something's up with us, or he just doesn't like humans. Either way, not good for us." " _How do you think he is in a fight?_ " "I don't know, and let's hope we never have to find out. Let's keep moving."

They walked beyond the Gyftrot down a pathway, constantly looking around for signs of being watched. Paranoia was taking both of them and wasn't letting go. Until, they came to the end of the path, a cliff off a mountain, with a beautiful scenic view, miles of green trees, blanketed in peaceful snow. A cave was on their right, and Frisk was feeling adventurous, so they walked in. The inside was even more captivating than the view outside, with a straight hallway in the dark cave, the path lightly luminescent. Sparkles swirled around and Frisk couldn't help but gasp as they walked along. Eventually, they came to a small clearing, with groups of glowing mushrooms. A door stood in front of them, with the same symbol Toriel had on her gown. Frisk's curiosity was peaked and Chara said nothing, so Frisk went and turned the knob. The door clicked and refused to turn, signaling it was locked. " _Well, guess we're not getting in. Come on, let's go back to that bridge._ " Frisk walked back all the way, in silence. They stopped a distance from the bridge. "So Chara, are you still giving them both a chance? Or just Papyrus? 'Cause honestly, I wouldn't blame you for it at this point." " _No. Honestly, I, uh… Well, I like Sans, I'm just worried he doesn't like, you know, us. I get the feeling he knows that something is up with us, other than just being a human. I just hope we can get on his good side, or something. I don't know-_ " "No no, I feel you. I think we're fine though. Think about it, if he knew something was up, wouldn't he just confront us? Plus, he always makes jokes and is grateful for us treating his brother nice. And if he doesn't like us, I'm sure we can sway him. After all, we still have our childish charms and adorable ribbon." Chara laughed and said, " _Alright, let's go talk to them._ "

"HUMAN! THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE! BEHOLD THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!" Many mechanical whirs and clicks were heard as deadly implements of all kinds, spears, cannons, and fire jets came from the surrounding landscape, along with a dog on a rope, swaying gently in the breeze. " _Okay, when I said talk to them, I didn't mean run right into a death trap._ " "Aww, what are you talking about, there's a dog on a rope, it can't be a deathtrap!" they said with thinly veiled false enthusiasm, meant to be a joke. "WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE! CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE! EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND DOWN! ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN! ARE YOU READY!?" Frisk frantically waved their hands and shook their head, trying as hard as they could to signal they were not ready. Papyrus noticed and his face did something funny, a slight scrunch, before he continued.

"BECAUSE! I! AM! ABOUT! TO DO IT!" Several seconds passed without activation and Chara thought, " _Why aren't we dead yet?_ " Sans echoed the sentiment, saying, "Well, what's the holdup?" "HOLD UP!? WHAT HOLDUP!? I'M… I'M ABOUT TO ACTIVATE IT NOW!" "Well Chara, when someone learns to like some things about you, it makes it harder for them to kill you. I think that's what our friend Papyrus is experiencing." " _Well, good for us that we learned to make friends. Now let's just hope he doesn't overcome that protective wall of friendship we've made._ " "That, uh, doesn't look very activated." "WELL! THIS CHALLENGE! IT SEEMS… MAYBE… TOO EASY TO DEFEAT THE HUMAN WITH?" It was said as though Papyrus was looking for plausibility in his answer, looking from his brother to Frisk to see if they would buy it.

"YEAH! WE CAN'T USE THIS ONE! I AM A SKELETON WITH STANDARDS! MY PUZZLES ARE VERY FAIR! AND MY TRAPS ARE EXPERTLY COOKED!" "Unlike your spaghetti." " _Oooh, nice one, Frisk._ " Frisk heard a clapping sound, which they imagined was Chara trying to hi-five them. "BUT THIS METHOD IS TOO DIRECT! NO CLASS AT ALL!" Papyrus declared with a wave of his hand. "AWAY IT GOES!" Frisk and Chara both thought, "Phew!" as Papyrus said it audibly. Frisk smiled at Papyrus in silent thanks, to which he responded, "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT!? THIS WAS ANOTHER DECISIVE VICTORY FOR PAPYRUS!" He rose his finger above his head and turned around before laughing. "NYEH! HEH! HEH…?" He looked over his shoulder on the last laugh, and he seemed to be thinking heavily about something, with his eyebrows scrunched together. He left in a hurry, while Sans waited to talk to them. "Alright, Chara, here goes nothing." Nervousness crept in every syllable in the sentence. "Hey kiddo. Gotta say, I'm glad my bro decided not to use that gauntlet. I'd like to see you around sometime in the future without having less meat on your bones than me. Heh. Anyways, I don't know what my brother's going to do now. If I were you, I would make sure I understand blue attacks." Frisk nodded their understanding and smiled at him before walking off. "Oh, hey buddy." Frisk turned. "Well, I just wanted to tell ya, my brother's a real cool guy. A nice guy. I told you before that he's not dangerous, even if he tries to be. Well that was true, and uh, well… If you decide he IS dangerous and want to take some sort of drastic, violent, action against him… let's just say I'd recommend you don't. Capiche?" Frisk gave a thumbs-up, trying not to betray the absolute fear dwelling in their heart. They turned around and were nearly blinded by the bright lights in front of them.

In front of them were some christmas lights, hanging on a large sign that read, "WELCOME TO SNOWDIN" in red and blue paint. The sign was very pretty and eye-catching, with snow covering the top of it. In front of them, lay a cozy town, with bright lights all around, and candlelight flooding through every window. The town looked very inviting and they immediately felt better as they were filled with a now familiar feeling, their injured jaw stinging a bit less, they're frozen body, starting to get gradually warmer. They started walking down the street, noticing that the first building seemed to be connected to the second by a hallway. The first part had a sign above the door reading, "Shop," with a small bag emblem above it, and the other had a sign that said, "Inn," with a Z above it. They felt their coin purse and were pleased by its weight, as many monsters had compensated them for trying to attack them with money. They decided spending some of that money could do them some good, and elected to enter the shop.

When they walked in the door, they found a counter about a yard away, with a purple bunny woman behind it, arms crossed but smiling pleasantly. The room behind her was well lit and filled with items. "Hello, traveler. How can I help you?" Frisk looked out over the counter inspecting what she had. She appeared to sell gloves that looked warm and tough, homemade cinnamon buns, two pronged popsicles, and cool bandannas with abs drawn on them. Frisk decided to buy two cinnamon buns and one of the bandannas, immediately putting it on. Frisk jokingly flexed several times in front of the shopkeeper, who tried to stifle her laughs but failed and burst out laughing. Frisk laughed too, happy to have brought joy to someone. Frisk held out the ribbon that had protected them so well to the shopkeep. "What's that, kid? You want to sell me that? Does this look like a pawn shop? I don't know where you come from, but if I started spending money on old ribbons and used bandages, I'd be out of business in a jiffy!" Frisk looked a little dejected, but then brightened when they realized that this meant they could keep the ribbon for at least a little longer. "So Chara, do you think this lady can tell me anything about the Underground that you can't?" " _I highly doubt it._ " "What about Sans and Papyrus, maybe she knows about them." " _Yeah, good idea._ " Frisk asked about the skeletons and she responded, "Oh yeah, there's always them. They're new additions to the town, brothers, I think. They just showed up one day and... " the bunny hesitated, choosing her words. "... asserted themselves. The town has gotten a lot more interesting since then." Frisk thanked her and waved bye before leaving the store.

Frisk considered entering the Inn, but they didn't feel tired at all, quite energetic, actually. They had never felt better. They elected to check it out sometime later, and kept walking. Frisk noticed a box, looking just like the one they had found earlier, just outside the Inn. "Well, Chara, I think you were right about the whole magic box thing." " _Of course I was right. I'm always right._ " Frisk snickered and replied, "Jerk." " _Imbecile._ " "Dumbo." " _Nincompoop._ " "All right, all right, let's get going." " _Hey you didn't deny anything I said. That means it's true._ " "Sure, fine, let's just keep going." Frisk said as they chuckled. " _Woohoo! I got you! I got you! I got… YOU!_ " As Frisk walked, Chara continued their taunting in a sing song voice to the same rhythm. Frisk rolled their eyes at how obnoxious Chara was, but was once again glad to have them; they made the Underground even more interesting than it already was. Frisk noticed a lady bunny walking a smaller bunny on a leash. They didn't speak to her, but she went out of her way to get their attention, saying, "Isn't my little cinnamon just the cutest? Bun-buns are so adorable. Tee hee!" Frisk nodded their agreement and she happily walked away, swelling with pride in her pet. Frisk turned around and saw a rabbit watching him and the girl, looking very suspicious. They walked over and before they could interact with him, he grabbed their shirt and pulled them in close. "That lady over there." He wildly snapped his head in her direction multiple times. "Something about her disturbs me." " _Well, everything about you disturbs me._ " "Nice one, Chara." They then examined a small igloo thing, with a sign next to it. The sign read, "Try the Undersnow tunnels! They're efficiently laid out." Frisk decided not to take them, as they wanted to explore the town itself.

Frisk turned and saw something odd: A Christmas Tree. "Oh infinitely wise Chara, why is there a christmas tree?" " _Maybe you should ask that bear._ " Frisk walked up to a polar bear like monster kneeling in front of the tree, gift in his hands, and waited patiently until they were noticed. "Awful teens tormented a local monster by decorating its tree-like horns. So we started giving that monster presents to make it feel better. Now it's a tradition to put presents underneath a decorated tree." "Fascinating. So that deer we met, rather than take off the things bothering him, the people set out gifts to compensate. I guess all it took to cheer him up was the work of… the Determined Duo!" " _Oh so you're trying to do that again. Lovely. And here I thought it was gone, and I couldn't have been happier._ " "Whatever, buzzkill." Before Chara could respond, Frisk walked up to a new monster, yellow, with no arms, and a striped body. "Yo! You're a kid too, right? I can tell cause you're wearing a striped shirt." "Wait, is that a thing down here?" " _Pretty much._ " "Fascinating." Frisk mused. The next building was a large building with a sign that said, "Grillby's." It had an open sign, was made of brick, and Frisk could see it was a fairly packed place through the window. A bear in an orange jacket spoke to them as they looked through the window, recognizing several people he'd already met like the Lesser Dog, Greater Dog, the Dog Marriage, and Doggo. The bear said, "This town doesn't have a mayor. But if there's ever a problem, a skeleton will tell a fish lady about it." Frisk pulled their face away from the glass and cocked their head to one side as they looked at him. "Thaaaaaat's politics!"

"Sure, I guess. Hey Chara, do you know anything about this fish lady?" " _Uh, yeah, don't worry about it, we'll be fine._ " But Chara's emotional cloud darkened, filling with fear and anxiety. Frisk thought to themself, 'Guess we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.' "Alright. Let's go inside." They entered Grillby's, a bar with no music, but lots of loud talking and joy all around. Behind the counter was the man himself, Grillby, looking snazzy in a dress shirt, spectacles, and a vest with a bow tie, using a rag to clean a mug. Frisk was a little intimidated and decided to talk to people he already knew, starting with Dogamy and Dogaressa. He couldn't tell which was which, as they had their hoods on and their barking voices were very similar, but one of them said, "You better watch where you sit down in here, kid. Because that big guy WILL jump into your lap and give you lots of love and attention." " **Dually** noted. Ha! Get it Chara, because there's two of us, so it's dually noted! Enh? ENH!?" " _Oh my God Frisk, I hate you._ " Chara said in between laughter. Frisk spoke to the other half of the dog marriage who said, "We're sentries, but we never get any respect. I wish those skeletons would throw us a bone. We love bones." "I'll bet you do. I'll bet you do." They walked over to Doggo, who flinched with every step. "I'm thinking of getting a spiked collar to show off my personality. It makes a statement like, "Attach a leash to me and take me for a walk please.

Frisk walked past to the Greater Dog, who saw the world's best petter approaching and let out a booming bark before aggressively licking their face. He soon left his armor and tackled Frisk to the ground, licking all over before finally sitting down and settling on their body. Frisk lay there for several minutes, content to pet the dog as long as they needed to, and one of the dogs said, "I warned you!" Eventually, Greater Dog sprang back up and leapt into his armor. Frisk got up, patted themself down, then walked into the corner of the room with the Lesser Dog. The dog didn't notice Frisk, as it seemed to be focused on playing a game of poker. Frisk didn't see an opponent, and soon realized that the dog was playing against itself, and the chair opposite them, the other player, seemed to have the upper hand. Frisk decided not to bother the dog and walked over to a red, bird-like monster. She said, "Those dogs are part of the Royal Guard, the elite military group led by Undyne. She's rude, loud, and beats up everybody who gets in her way. It's no wonder all the kids want to be like her when they grow up!" "Do you know this 'Undyne' person?" " _Well, that's the fish lady the bear mentioned. The one I said not to worry about. Don't worry though, I'm sure we'll be fine._ " Chara seemed even less sure of this answer than before, and Frisk was starting to get worried. Now Frisk tried to talk to Grillby, but there was silence. Then, the red bird spoke. "Grillbz said that he would offer you a glass of water, but he doesn't touch the stuff. "Fair enough."

Frisk walked to a booth with a monster inside who was basically one giant, yellow mouth, with huge teeth. He seemed to be troubled by a thought. "Hmmm… Isn't human food different from monster food? It does things like 'spoil.' And when you eat it, it passes all the way through your whole body. Disgusting." He said with disdain. "I'd love to try it sometime." Frisk said, "Well I wouldn't really know about human food." "Yeah, I guess you're right." " _Why did you do that?_ " "Well, I had an idea. That kid outside mentioned that I have a striped shirt, and look like a kid. Maybe, I can convince some people that I'm just a monster kid, not a human, and avoid some fights altogether, instead of trying to convince them to let me leave with my life. This is me planting the seeds in people's heads." " _Clever. Very clever._ " "My thanks, dear comrade." Frisk said with an air of fancy arrogance. Frisk walked to the other corner of the room to talk to a very large hamster like monster, wearing sunglasses indoors and with blonde hair. His voice was nasally and immediately grated on Frisk's ears. "The capital's getting pretty crowded. So I've heard they're going to start moving here. Hmmm… I don't want to see the erasure of our local culture, but I definitely want to see some city slickers slip onto their butts!" "How insensitive, some monsters don't have butts!" " _You sure?_ " "Pretty sure. There's a multitude of monster species, I'm sure at least one doesn't have a clearly defined butt." " _Can we please move onto a conversation topic that isn't butts?_ " " **Butt** why?" Chara sighed with exasperation. " _Yeah, I walked right into that one did-_ " "-Yeah, yeah you did." Frisk decided to talk to one last person on their way out, a seemingly intoxicated beige rabbit. "No matter where I go, it's the same menu, the same people. Help! I want new drinks an' h-h-h-hot guys!" "Watch your language, rabbit! There are children here!" Frisk jokingly thought. Then they walked back out into the cold.

They kept exploring the town, and to the left saw a path leading off to the left and a library. Before that however, there were two monsters, a brown mouse with large ears and a green scarf, and a smiling creature wearing a red robe with horns, making them look like a cross between a jester and a demon. Frisk walked over to the Scarf Mouse, who said, "Everyone is always laughing and cracking jokes, trying to forget our modern crises. Dreariness. Crowding. Lack of Sunlight. I would join them, but I'm just not very funny." "Aww, that's sad. Why is everyone stuck down here, anyways?" " _I could tell you, but I'm not very good at explaining things. Soon though, we'll go to the place where I learned. You'll know the whole story of the past before long, I promise._ " "Okay, sounds good. I love history." They stood in front of the Jester, who said, "We all know the Underground has problems, but we smile anyway. Why? We can't do anything, so why be morose about it?" The Jester smiled wider and Frisk thought, "Well that's one way to look at it. Maybe even the best way." Frisk decided to check everything on this street of Snowdin before taking the other path, so they walked to the library. As they were about to enter, Chara said, " _Wait wait wait, hold up._ " Frisk, hand still on the door, thought "Yeah?" " _Look at the sign again._ " Frisk confusedly looked up at the sign, then saw what Chara meant. The sign, in crisp letters, spelled "Librarby," rather than, "Library." "Hunh. Interesting."

Frisk walked in, enjoying the warmth the building afforded, before walking to the librarian's counter, where a green lizard monster in a yellow turtleneck was cleaning her glasses with a small rag. She finished cleaning, put the rag away, then said, "Welcome to the library. Yes, we know. The sign is misspelled." "I wasn't going to mention it, but good that she knows it." The library itself had the librarian's counter tucked into the corner closest to the door, a table on the other side of the room, and a back wall adorned with shelves of books. The table held 3 monsters each with paper in front of them. As Frisk approached the table, they noticed that each of the papers in front of them was a newspaper. They walked up to a yellow monster that looked a little like a smaller, bipedal, rhinoceros. She looked up from her work with a smile and said, "I love working on the newspaper. There's so little to report that we just fill it with comics and games. Next to her, sat a monster with a green body, circular head, and a well-kept hairstyle of bobs straight out of the 1920s. She coughed a couple of times, then slowly said, "When I was younger, my teachers gave me word searches when they ran out of assignments. I thought they were a waste of time." " _Oh believe me lady, they were._ " Chara remarked. Suddenly her voice picked up in energy, speed, and intensity. "But look at me now! I'm the number-one word-search creator in the entire underground!" "Probably because you're the only one." " _Oh, we're on fire today!_ " The last monster at the table looked like a normal Loox, but without arms. It eyed Frisk a moment, tilting it's head slightly back and forth before saying, "That look in your eye… You're someone that has trouble doing Junior Jumbles, aren't you?" "Wow, okay. That is legitimately amazing. Let's go do some reading."

There were many books on the shelves, and after spending hours reading in the library, they had gathered this: They had learned that monsters are magical beings, whereas humans are more physical. Monsters are in tune with their souls and have access to magical powers and abilities, but humans are stronger and have more physical form. While humans are made of water and other things of the natural world, monsters are magic manifested. However, being in tune with their souls comes at a cost. As a monster is hurt, their defenses against further attack weaken, and if someone attacks with intent to hurt, the monsters are extremely susceptible. They learned the new capital of the Underground was named New Home, and the monsters feared the humans, likely due to their strength. Another book made it clear that humans were hated by monsters, calling attention to an apparent lack of emotions like compassion and love. This was a knife that cut Frisk deep, considering how empathetic and kind they'd been on their journey. They decided that if monsters had bad experiences with humans, then they would make it better, and bring humans a good reputation if it killed them. Finally, there was an interesting school report on monster death and funerals, explaining how when a monster dies, they become dust and the dust is spread over their favorite thing, so they will live on inside that thing. Chara had been silent for almost the entire session, talking only to add a funny joke or complain about how long it was taking every now and then.

Frisk put the books away, got up, stretched a few times, waved goodbye to everyone inside, and left the library. They decided to keep going the way they had been, seeing a large house in the distance. They saw two mailboxes outside, one overflowing and the other with a small plaque on the front. They read the plaque, which simply stated, "PAPYRUS." "Oh, so this must be their house. What's that over there?" A wooden shed stood next to the house. " _Don't know. Try the knob._ " Frisk turned the doorknob, but it seemed to be locked from the inside. They noticed another igloo thing next to it, remembering it for later. They kept walking in the same direction, and soon the wind got chillier, like a blizzard was rolling in. Frisk could barely see 6 inches in front of their noses, but eventually they heard a voice. "HUMAN." Frisk knew that Papyrus was no longer here for japes, or puzzles, or laughs. He was here to stop them. Frisk would not fight him, but he might be able to get through him. They knew there was no turning back, but Chara and Frisk both knew they were ready to face the skeleton that wanted nothing else but friendship.

[Note: Finally we get to Papyrus' fight, can't wait to write the next chapter! Now, in case you haven't noticed, I've realized that having Chara speak might be confusing, so I went through all the previous chapters and italicized all of their lines, to aid reader comprehension. I also added a note about it to the summary. Hope this helps the flow of reading, and if you have any other suggestions, please, tell me, be it through messages or reviews. See you next time!]


	8. Panicking Gone Well

"HUMAN. ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS. FEELINGS LIKE THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER. THE ADMIRATION FOR ANOTHER'S PUZZLE-SOLVING SKILLS. THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL, SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL." "Aww, he thinks we're cool!" "THESE FEELINGS... THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW!" "Oh. Should've seen that coming, honestly." "I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO FEEL THAT WAY. AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT. I DON'T EVER WONDER WHAT HAVING LOTS OF FRIENDS IS LIKE. I PITY YOU, LONELY HUMAN. WORRY NOT! YOU SHALL BE LONELY NO LONGER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE YOUR…" Papyrus rose with pride, but then fell, dramatically dropping his head towards the floor. "NO... NO, THIS IS ALL WRONG! I CAN'T BE YOUR FRIEND! YOU ARE A HUMAN! I MUST CAPTURE YOU!" " _Oh no, here we go._ " "THEN, I CAN FULFILL MY LIFELONG DREAM! POWER! POPULAR! PRESTIGIOUS! THAT'S PAPYRUS! THE NEWEST MEMBER... OF THE ROYAL GUARD!" Papyrus finished his speech with a flourish and raised a skeletal hand. Bones broke through the floor, and Papyrus gave a small nod.

"W-wait! If we can't be friends, uh…" "Papyrus looked expectantly for them to finish their sentence. "... Then maybe we can be more?" Frisk said, trying to look innocent. Papyrus did a double-take then composed himself, trying not to show his surprise. "WHAT!? FL-FLIRTING!? SO YOU FINALLY REVEAL YOUR ULTIMATE FEELINGS! W-WELL! I'M A SKELETON WITH VERY HIGH STANDARDS!" Chara did their own double-take and yelled " _What are you doing!?_ " "I don't know! I panicked! It's too late to take it back, so let's just move forward, I guess." Frisk thought a moment, then said, "I can make spaghetti." "Is that true?" "No, I've never cooked anything in my life, but he doesn't have to know that." "OH NO! YOU'RE MEETING ALL MY STANDARDS!" "Yeah, see, we can get through this." At that moment, the bones started moving. "Woah!" But Frisk's exclamation turned out to be totally unnecessary. The bones moved at varying speeds, some fast, some slow, but they never even got close to touching Frisk, much less hurting them. "It seems to be working. I'm going to try and flirt with him one more time." " _You like this, don't you?_ " "What!?" " _Why is it that the first thing that came to your mind was flirting with him? Have you been thinking about it for awhile?_ " "W-what!? No, of course no- you know what, shut up!" Chara laughed uproariously and Frisk shook themself back to attention. "Would you like that, Papyrus? If we were more?" Frisk did their best to blow a kiss seductively, causing Papyrus to blush heavily, visible even from where they were standing.

"I GUESS THIS MEANS I HAVE TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOU...? LET'S DATE L-LATER! AFTER I CAPTURE YOU!" More bones came and more bones went without a hit. "Okay, now let's try to spare him." Frisk crossed their arms and shook their head, refusing to fight. "SO YOU WON'T FIGHT." Papyrus brought their gloved hand to their chin and narrowed his eyes. Inspiration struck them and they raised a finger. "THEN, LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN HANDLE MY FABLED 'BLUE ATTACK!'" Frisk prepared themself with a yawn, knowing that blue attacks couldn't harm them if they didn't move. Suddenly, they felt hundreds of pounds heavier, and they felt like their limbs had frozen; they couldn't move as freely as before and a bone came at them from the side. They barely avoided the attack, having to use all their willpower just to jump over a bone half their height. "YOU'RE BLUE NOW. THAT'S MY ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Frisk looked down at themselves, checking to make sure they were okay, but then saw a blue heart shape in front of their chest. "Oh my God, what is that!?" " _Frisk are you kidding me? That's your soul. Did you seriously never notice the culmination of your very being?_ " "I've never seen it before, on the surface, this is all new. He said it's blue now, what is it usually?" Chara sighed and was about to respond, when they paused. They seemed to have an epiphany and lost track of what they were saying. "Uh, Chara?" _"Hunh!? Oh, yeah, yeah, what?_ " "My soul?" " _What about it?_ " "What color is it!?" " _Oh, it's usually red. You can see when we get out of this mess._ "

Papyrus was still patiently waiting for the Human to counter before continuing his attacks, confident that this would be an easy capture. Papyrus sent more short bones carving through the snow. " _So, you're not actually going to date him, are you?_ " "Are you seriously worried about that right now!?" Frisk yelled as they alternated between staying still and moving as fast as their muscles could carry them. " _Yes, because if you do, I'll be dragged along with you and I can guarantee that I will not be quiet about it._ " "Well, I'm not just going to hint at it and not follow up." There was dead silence for a time. Then Chara sighed heavily and said neutrally, " _You're going to date a narcissistic skeleton?_ " "No! No! No, I'm going to go on A date with a skeleton." " _Only one?_ " "Nyuhuh." The word that came out their mouth was long and retracted, a mix between no, yes, and uh-hunh. " _What does that mean?_ " "W-well, I won't unless he wants to." More silence as the battle raged on. They knew Papyrus was saying stuff, but they couldn't care less. " _You WANT to date the skeleton, don't you?_ " Frisk was blushing hard, not all of it from the cold. "That's none of your business." " _OH MY GOD, FRISK!_ " "SHUT UP, CHARA!" " _HOW OLD ARE YOU!?_ " "Hey! I can date when I want, I'm very mature for a-" Frisk was cut off by a bone smacking their forehead. As they reeled and held a hand to their forehead, a bump already forming, they heard Chara say, " _Oh look, your future boyfriend is making his move. He's hitting on you, quite literally in fact._ " "You know, I want to hate you, but that was a pretty good one."

After about two minutes of tough dodging, where Chara thought it best to just let Frisk focus, Papyrus stopped his attack. He had run through his vision of the future, with images like the ever-mysterious Undyne being proud, the bloodthirsty King trimming a hedge in his likeness, temporarily dismayed at the knowledge that Sans wouldn't change. Papyrus mentioned a special attack that he was saving, worrying Frisk a little bit. After a couple more barrages, Papyrus readied more bones in the air, but then they stopped and fell to the ground. "I'LL HAVE LOTS OF ADMIRERS! BUT…" Papyrus dropped his head, with a sad frown, then brought it back to stare into their eyes. "WILL ANYONE LIKE ME AS SINCERELY AS YOU?" " _Doubt it._ " "Hey, be nice." " _How nice?_ " Frisk was going to answer, but knew it was a trap from Chara's mischievous tone of voice, so they just ignored them and focused on Papyrus. "SOMEONE LIKE YOU IS REALLY RARE, AND DATING MIGHT BE KIND OF HARD AFTER YOU'RE CAPTURED AND SENT AWAY." Papyrus shook himself and said, "URGH... WHO CARES! GIVE UP!" "Darn, thought we had him that time. Guess we'll just have to keep dodging for now." They did exactly that, and Papyrus mentioned his special attack again. Each attack was becoming harder and harder, with bones acting more like meat tenderizers, spears, and other painful implements, than pieces of the human body. "YEAH! VERY SOON I WILL USE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" " _Hey Frisk, does he look tired to you?_ " Frisk noticed sweat beading down Papyrus' skull. "Yeah, he does. Maybe he'll give up soon. Maybe after his special attack?" "Let's hope."

After a couple more dodging strings, Papyrus said, "BEHOLD...! MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" " _Get ready, Frisk!_ " Papyrus raised a bone from the ground, slowly and dramatically, with his eyes closed. "I'M SORRY FOR HAVING TO DO THIS TO YOU, HUMAN, BUT YOU REFUSED TO SURRENDER TO MY OTHER ATTACKS! SO NOW, YOU WILL FACE MY POWER!" What Papyrus hadn't noticed was that a dog had waltzed up to the scene, and began chewing the bone as it lay on the snow. "GOODBYE, HUMAN." " _Is the dog part of the attack?_ " "I don't think so." They soon got their answer. "WHAT THE HECK! THAT'S MY SPECIAL ATTACK! HEY! YOU STUPID DOG! DO YOU HEAR ME!? STOP MUNCHING ON THAT BONE!" The dog looked up at him, looking confused. Then it ran away, with Papyrus' "Special Attack," still in it's mouth. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! COME BACK HERE WITH MY SPECIAL ATTACK! ... OH WELL. I'LL JUST USE A REALLY COOL REGULAR ATTACK." "Sounds good to me." Papyrus sighed disappointedly then said, "HERE'S AN ABSOLUTELY NORMAL ATTACK."

Short bones came from all around, Frisk was barely able to dodge one before another was upon them. Bones of varying heights encircled them, coming closer and fluctuating between high and low, so Frisk had to rely on timing. They were getting exhausted, when the dog came running back, still holding the bone. The dog charged straight for them, but they dodged nimbly. Papyrus grunted with effort as he quickly assembled several bones in an odd configuration before hurling them at high speed. Frisk angled off and was finally able to figure it out: the bones spelled the word "Cool." The next configuration said, "Dude." Then, a bone wearing sunglasses came on a skateboard. " _Okay, somewhere in his bony skull, he's got a screw loose._ " "Maybe." Then Papyrus raised a whole wall of bones in front of them, and started creating many more behind the first, until there was an undodgeable column of bones that stretched for several meters, too far to jump over. " _What do we do?_ " "I have an idea." Frisk grabbed the skateboard, stuck in the snow, and used it to ride the bones. It was a bumpy ride, but they were safe. Suddenly, a block of bones approaching them rose to impressive heights, taller than a tree. " _Now what, genius?_ " "Simple." Frisk threw the board at the bones with all their force. Papyrus was so exhausted from this show of force and such an extended fight, that he couldn't maintain the bones and the skateboard smashed them, causing the tower to collapse and Frisk to slide past in safety. " _Nice. You're getting pretty good at this whole, 'Not killing people and surviving despite overwhelming opposition,' thing._ " "Thanks, I guess."

"WELL...! 'HUFF' IT'S CLEAR." Papyrus hunched over like he was going to barf, then straightened up. "YOU CAN'T! 'HUFF' DEFEAT ME! YEAH! I CAN SEE YOU SHAKING IN YOUR BOOTS! THEREFORE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ELECT TO GRANT YOU PITY! I WILL SPARE YOU, HUMAN! NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO ACCEPT MY MERCY." "Gladly." Frisk smiled and extended a hand to Papyrus, who shook it, before falling onto the ground. "Papyrus!?" Papyrus had tears in his eyes and he threw his hands to them. "NYOO HOO HOO! I CAN'T EVEN STOP SOMEONE AS WEAK AS YOU. UNDYNE'S GOING TO BE DISAPPOINTED IN ME. I'LL NEVER JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD, AND, WORST OF ALL, MY FRIEND QUANTITY WILL REMAIN STAGNANT!" "So, what do you think, Chara?" " _What do you mean?_ " "Well, considering we share this body, I think it's only fair to accept your input. Friend?" Chara thought hard, sighed, then said, " _Yeah I guess he's okay. But only because his lower intelligence and dorkiness is amusing to me._ " Frisk smiled and chuckled a little bit. "Sounds good enough for me." "Papyrus." "NYEH?" He said, as he looked up, cheeks still wet. "Let's be friends." "REALLY!? YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS, WITH ME? WELL THEN... I GUESS…" Papyrus jumped to his feet in one fluid motion, surprising Frisk and taking them back. "I GUESS I CAN MAKE AN ALLOWANCE FOR YOU!" Papyrus pulled Frisk into a hug, a quite painful one as it were, considering his lack of flesh, but Frisk couldn't help but laugh.

Papyrus let Frisk go, then scratched the back of his neck as he said, "WOWIE! WE HAVEN'T EVEN HAD OUR FIRST DATE... AND I'VE ALREADY MANAGED TO HIT THE FRIEND ZONE! WHO KNEW THAT ALL I NEEDED TO MAKE PALS WAS TO GIVE PEOPLE AWFUL PUZZLES AND THEN FIGHT THEM?" "I certainly didn't. I never had a friend before you, Chara." " _Wait, really?_ " "No, not really. I was always trying to stay under the radar and out of the way. If people don't know who you are, then they don't hurt you." Frisk was brought down once again by their memories, but then Papyrus brought them back. "YOU TAUGHT ME A LOT, HUMAN. I HEREBY GRANT YOU PERMISSION TO PASS THROUGH!" Frisk gave a small bow, to match Papyrus' grand gesture and speech. "AND I'LL GIVE YOU DIRECTIONS TO THE SURFACE." "Did you hear that, Chara? We'll finally know we're going." " _That's, uh, great._ " Chara seemed hesitant, it was the way they got when they didn't want to tell Frisk something, when they had something to hide. But, if Frisk could trust Sans, they could certainly trust Chara.

"CONTINUE FORWARD UNTIL YOU REACH THE END OF THE CAVERN. THEN... WHEN YOU REACH THE CAPITAL, CROSS THE BARRIER. THAT'S THE MAGICAL SEAL TRAPPING US ALL UNDERGROUND. ANYTHING CAN ENTER THROUGH IT, BUT NOTHING CAN EXIT, EXCEPT SOMEONE WITH A POWERFUL SOUL, LIKE YOU!" "I have a powerful soul?" " _Yeah, as a human. Humans have naturally powerful souls, that's why that flower wanted to take yours._ " "How was he going to do that anyways?" " _W-well, I'm not really clear on the whole soul thing, but I'm sure we can find out._ " Hesitation again. "What are they hiding?" thought Frisk. Then Papyrus continued, "THAT'S WHY THE KING WANT TO ACQUIRE A HUMAN. HE WANTS TO OPEN THE BARRIER WITH SOUL POWER. THEN US MONSTERS CAN RETURN TO THE SURFACE! OH, I ALMOST FORGOT TO TELL YOU, TO REACH THE EXIT, YOU WILL HAVE TO PASS… THROUGH THE KING'S CASTLE. THE KING OF ALL MONSTERS… HE IS… WELL…" Papyrus paused and started clicking his knuckles together, refusing to look anywhere but at a tree off to the side, before brightening and facing Frisk again. "HE'S A BIG FUZZY PUSHOVER! EVERYBODY LOVES THAT GUY. I AM CERTAIN IF YOU JUST SAY… "EXCUSE ME, MR. DREEMURR... CAN I PLEASE GO HOME?" HE'LL GUIDE YOU RIGHT TO THE BARRIER HIMSELF!" "Not to invalidate our friend's opinion, but, is that true, Chara?" " _Yeah. Yeah it is. The King is a nice guy._ "

"ANYWAY! THAT'S ENOUGH TALKING! I'LL BE AT HOME BEING A COOL FRIEND! FEEL FREE TO COME BY AND HAVE THAT DATE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus left in a hurry, boots almost never touching the ground. "So how about it, Chara? You feel like going on a date?" " _Yeah, let's do it._ " "Wait, I thought you hated this whole thing?" " _Oh I do, but I want to be there if and when this date crashes and burns. I think it will be very entertaining. Plus, what kind of best friend would I be if I didn't go with you to all your dates?_ " "Sadism aside, let's go, pal." " _Indeed._ "


	9. The Skeleton Home

Frisk walked back to Snowdin, heading directly for Papyrus' house. " _Wait a second, isn't it like a big no-no to try and date right after setting one up? It makes you clingy or something?_ " "Do you honestly think Papyrus will care?" " _Fair point, carry on._ " They arrived, seeing Papyrus waiting outside. "Alright, here goes nothing." Papyrus noticed them and said, "SO YOU CAME BACK TO HAVE THAT DATE WITH ME! YOU MUST BE REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS." " _Unfortunately, we are._ " "I'LL HAVE TO TAKE YOU SOMEPLACE REALLY SPECIAL, A PLACE I LIKE TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME!" Papyrus began strutting away and Frisk jogged to catch up. "Ya know, for a person without muscles, he moves pretty fast." They quickly moved past the library and almost to Grillby's when Papyrus made a sudden heel turn. Frisk couldn't turn in time and fell when they tried. They heard a familiar laugh, and looked up to see Sans amongst the trees bordering Snowdin. He laughed a little longer, then walked away, back into the woods. Frisk gulped, then ran to catch up to Papyrus, who was now waiting in front of his house. "MY HOUSE!" Papyrus walked inside. Frisk barely chuckled at the events that had just transpired, still afraid of the seemingly needlessly creepy Sans. " _What is that guy's problem!? It's not like he knows about us, right? Uh, r-right?_ " Frisk tried to sound brave, reasonable, calm, and collected all at once, but turned out pretty shaky as they said, "No, of course he doesn't know. He's just a monster paranoid about humans. He has good reason, after all." Papyrus poked his head out and said, "YOU KNOW, IT'S RUDE TO LEAVE YOUR DATE WAITING. OR SO I'VE HEARD. I'VE NEVER, WELL, DONE THIS BEFORE. ANYWAYS, COME INSIDE, DON'T BE SHY!" " _Yeah, Frisk, don't be shy._ " "Shut up, Chara!" Chara laughed some more as Frisk walked inside the warm house.

The house was surprisingly tidy and roomy, with two floors and everything cleaned to perfection. Directly in front of them was a kitchen with an abnormally tall cabinet, to their right was a table with a rock on it, and to their left was a couch and a large TV, and past that was the stairs to the upper floor. Papyrus stood next to the stairs, large grin on his face and hands at his side. Frisk was curious about the rock and stepped up to it. Papyrus immediately explained, "THIS IS MY BROTHER'S PET ROCK. HE ALWAYS FORGETS TO FEED IT." "Hey, that's pretty funny." "AS USUAL, I HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY." Frisk noticed that the rock was covered in sprinkles. "Oh, he wasn't joking. Well, maybe he's not the shiniest tool in the shed, but…" " _But what?_ " "But he is charming." " _I have no words, you are truly hopeless._ " Frisk saw something on the ground next to the TV and decided to investigate. When they walked up to it, they saw it was a dirty sock, with a series of notes attached to it, with two different handwritings. The first was in all caps.

"SANS! PLEASE PICK UP YOUR SOCK!" "Ok." "DON'T PUT IT BACK DOWN! MOVE IT!" "Ok." "YOU MOVED IT TWO INCHES! MOVE IT TO YOUR ROOM!" "Ok." "AND DON'T BRING IT BACK!" "Ok." "IT'S STILL HERE!" "Didn't you just say not to bring it back into my room?" "FORGET IT!" That was the last of the notes. " _They have such a functional relationship._ " Frisk chuckled, audibly by accident. "HMM? OH YES, THAT. APOLOGIES, BUT I HAVE YET TO CORRECT SANS' INHERENT LAZINESS, NOR HIS LACK OF CLEANLINESS. I WILL TAKE CARE OF THAT MYSELF, I SUPPOSE. I'LL BE WAITING IN MY ROOM FOR WHEN YOU'RE READY TO TAKE OUR DATE TO THE NEXT LEVEL. AND BY THAT I MEAN THE NEXT FLOOR. WHERE MY ROOM IS. RIGHT THERE." Papyrus pointed to a door near the stairs before walking over and picking up the sock. He grabbed the sock, took off all the notes and put them in the nearby trashcan. "OH, AND THIS IS THE TRASH CAN. FEEL FREE TO VISIT IT ANYTIME." Papyrus walked off to his room and Chara thought, " _I swear, if he wasn't so innocent and naive, I'd think he was trying to insult you._ " "Maybe he's cleverer than you think and he is insulting us." Papyrus poked his head out of his door. "I'M WAITING, PROSPECT FOR A LIFE PARTNER!" " _Oh yes, he's a real bad boy, I see the appeal._ " Frisk grumbled incoherently as they moped up the steps.

They opened the door to find a room resembling paradise, for a 9-year old boy. The room had a race-car bed, rug with flames on the edges, action figures, a pirate flag, and a computer in the corner. Papyrus stood in the middle of the room with a beaming smile. Frisk smiled and walked forward, but they tripped over something and nearly broke their neck. When they turned to look, there was a box of bones next to the door, and one bone that had fallen out and was currently under their shin. "OH NO! ARE YOU OKAY!?" Frisk nodded and gave a thumbs-up before standing and patting themselves down. "THOSE ARE ALL THE ATTACKS I USED ON YOU. GREAT MEMORIES, HUH? SEEMS LIKE IT WAS ONLY YESTERDAY, EVEN THOUGH IT BASICALLY JUST HAPPENED."

" _What's up with that Pirate flag?_ " "Don't know. Let's go check it out." Frisk walked over to it and after a short pause, looked to Papyrus as they pointed to it. "ISN'T THAT FLAG NEATO? UNDYNE FOUND IT AT THE BAY. I THINK IT'S FROM THE HUMAN WORLD? NOW I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING. WHY WOULD A HUMAN FLAG HAVE A COOL SKELETON ON IT? WELL, I HAVE A THEORY. I THINK HUMANS," He paused for dramatic effect. "MUST HAVE DESCENDED FROM SKELETONS! NYEH HEH HEH!" " _Oh Papyrus, so close and yet so far. I wonder what books he has, in his infinite wisdom._ " The last words were said tauntingly, causing Frisk to grow red in the face from a mixture of anger and knowing that the taunting wasn't unwarranted. "Okay, like I said, he's not the smartest, or the biggest, or the strongest, but I love him!" " _You don't even know what love is!_ " "Shut up, Chara!" If two halves of a person could fight, a full-on brawl would be happening at that moment. Papyrus patiently waited until Frisk said. "Okay, Chara, we need to move on. How about a deal? You don't make fun of my love-" " _PERCEIVED love._ " "My LOVE." They said with finality. "And I won't make fun of you until we get out of Snowdin." " _You think you can handle that?_ " "Definitely." " _Alright, let's keep going then._ "

Frisk walked over to the bookshelf and browsed his index. They pulled out a book titled "Advanced Puzzle Construction for Critical Minds," and Papyrus said, "THAT BOOK'S ONE OF MY FAVORITES. ADVANCED PUZZLE CONSTRUCTION FOR CRITICAL MINDS." "Oh wow, how INTELLIGENT and THOUGHTFUL." Frisk put the book back and barely glanced at the next one. Before Papyrus could speak, Frisk heard Chara say, " _Wait a minute, is that-_ " "THE NEXT BOOK IS ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITES, PEEK-A-BOO WITH FLUFFY BUNNY. THE ENDING ALWAYS GETS ME." Chara was howling with laughter and Frisk couldn't help but smile too. Chara caught their breath and huffed, _"Okay, okay, I know we said no making fun of him, but technically, I didn't make fun of him, I just laughed, and not necessarily at him._ " "Fair enough, deal's still on." They didn't want to see the rest of the books, certain that they were going to be more Fluffy Bunny and less the logistics of puzzle construction. They walked over to his computer next.

"THE INTERNET! I'M QUITE POPULAR THERE!" "Wait, how does the Underground have the internet? How does it have computers!? That's advanced stuff!" " _I'm not quite sure, actually. Maybe we'll find out. Or maybe you underestimate the intelligence of monsters. I know I've underestimated them before._ " Chara seemed sad and almost repentant when he said the last part. Papyrus continued. "I'M JUST A DOZEN AWAY FROM A DOUBLE DIGIT FOLLOWER COUNT!" " _Are you kid- Frisk please, can we make an exception on our deal!? I can't let this pass, it'll drive me mad!_ " "Sorry buddy, a deal's a deal." " _Oh my God, I hate you Frisk!_ " Frisk laughed as Papyrus' face took a form of dissatisfaction. "OF COURSE, FAME HAS A STEEP PRICE. A JEALOUS TROLL HAS BESIEGED MY ONLINE PERSONA, ALWAYS SENDING ME BAD PUNS IN A GOOFY FONT." A low growl that grew into a yell of anguish came from Frisk's head. " _WHY DID I MAKE THIS DEAL!? UGHH! IT'S YOUR BROTHER! YOU-YOU... UGHH! AGAIN!_ "

"How you holding up there, buddy?" " _The date hasn't even started and I'm losing my mind! I thought this would be fun! For me at least. I thought your fun would crash and burn. Guess I was wrong._ " "Oh, there's still plenty of time for that. On that note, let's get it started." " _Are you sure? Don't you want to ask him about his bed, his figures, or you know what never mind, let's get this over with._ " Frisk laughed and explained, "I can ask him about those anytime, but I don't want you to suffer, even if it was a fair deal, so I'm leaving as soon as possible for you." " _Oh. Thanks, Frisk. I appreciate it._ " "No problem. Alright, let's do it." Frisk walked up to Papyrus and gave him a thumbs up. "SO, UHM… IF YOU'VE SEEN EVERYTHING… DO YOU WANT TO START THE DATE?" Frisk nodded, and their fate was sealed.


	10. The Date

Frisk took a deep breath and prepared themselves for what would happen next. Papyrus fidgeted about, playing with his hands before saying,

"HERE WE ARE! ON OUR DATE! I'VE ACTUALLY NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE."

" _Okay, Frisk. I'd say I know you pretty well by now. And I think you know me a little bit. So I think you know what you and I both want to say, but I can't. Help me, please._ "

"I don't know what you're talking about. This man, er, skeleton, is my intelligent, caring, and thoughtful companion."

" _Frisk, you and I became fast friends, didn't we?_ " The tone was a pleading one, filled with self-pity.

" _Please don't do this to me_."

"You're right, Chara. You and I, we're in this together. And that means I should help you."

" _Oh, thank God._ "

Frisk used every bit of sarcasm in their body to think, "Really? I'm shocked the Great Papyrus has never dated!" Frisk had never heard such a sigh of relief.

"BUT DON'T WORRY! YOU CAN'T SPELL "PREPARED" WITHOUT SEVERAL LETTERS FROM MY NAME! I SNAGGED AN OFFICIAL DATING RULEBOOK FROM THE LIBRARY! WE'RE READY TO HAVE A GREAT TIME! LET'S SEE..." Papyrus was soon lost in the book, making small interjections, like, "OH!" and, "I SEE…"

" _Oh, how thoughtful of him._ "

"There, now you're getting it!"

" _I hate you._ "

"AH! HERE WE GO! STEP ONE!"

"PRESS THE… C KEY? ON YOUR KEYBOARD? HMM, WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" Papyrus scratched his skull. He paced back and forth, then went over to his computer and pressed a button.

"DID THAT DO ANYTHING?"

" _Go with it, Frisk._ "

Frisk nodded and then something… odd, happened.

They felt like something really did happen. Maybe it was their imagination, always known to be vivid, or maybe things didn't have to make sense in the world they were in.

"I... you felt that, right?"

" _Yes. It's like... I can't explain it._ "

"WOWIE, I FEEL SO INFORMED! I FEEL LIKE WE'RE READY FOR STEP TWO! STEP TWO: ASK THEM ON A DATE."

"Oh no, we did it out of order, does that mean we have to start over?"

" _No! If I have to suffer through all of this again, without comment, I will once again encourage violence._ "

"That's the last thing we need."

"AHEM!"

They both redirected their attention.

"HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GO ON A DATE WITH YOU!

"Ooh, so bold and forceful."

Chara groaned and Frisk smiled once again.

" _You're sadistic, you know that?_ "

"I have my downfalls."

" _You want to add that I do too, don't you?_ "

Frisk was taken aback by the accusation. "What, no, no, I-"

" _Please, don't insult my intelligence, Frisk. I understand your hesitation to hurt others, especially monsters so free and kind. But, maybe in time you'll learn what I know. For now, let's refrain from this subject, and I'll let you just enjoy this moment._ " The tone was somber, as had become the trend when Chara's aggressive nature came up.

"HUMAN! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!? YOUR EXPRESSION HAS SOURED."

Frisk straightened and nodded quickly.

"WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE TO MY DEMAND!?"

Frisk nodded again and Papyrus' face grew red and his eyes grew starry.

"R-REALLY? WOWIE! I GUESS THAT MEANS IT'S TIME FOR PART THREE! STEP THREE, PUT ON NICE CLOTHES TO SHOW THAT YOU CARE! WAIT A SECOND…"

"Oh no."

Papyrus looked them up and down, squinting.

"WEAR CLOTHING… THAT BANDANNA AROUND YOUR HEAD, YOU'RE WEARING CLOTHING RIGHT NOW! NOT ONLY THAT, EARLIER TODAY, YOU WERE ALSO WEARING CLOTHING! NO, COULD IT BE? YOU'VE WANTED TO DATE ME FROM THE VERY BEGINNING!"

" _I think he's figured you out, Frisk._ "

"Well, that wasn't my intention when I wore clothes today, but his assumption isn't wrong."

" _So you admit that you always wanted to date him!?_ "

"I… yes, yes I do."

Frisk visualized Chara jumping around in their brain, laughing and pointing, flush with the admission of victory, sure that that was what they were doing.

Frisk nodded confirmation to Papyrus, smiling to themself as Chara winded down.

" _Aaaahh, the admittance of defeat, oh how I live for it._ "

"Thanks, Shakespeare. Can we get back to it?"

" _Oh, please do._ "

"NO!"

"What!?"

"YOU PLANNED IT ALL! YOU'RE WAY BETTER AT DATING THAN I AM!"

Papyrus crumbled to the floor, as both human children retracted and eyed him with concern. As Frisk looked down, they noticed once again, a heart shape in front of them, this time a bright red color.

"Chara, is that my… soul?"

" _Yes. As I said, it represents you in your entirety. If you get hurt, your soul takes damage, and eventually, it can't go on anymore, and you die._ "

"That's… terrifying."

" _Death always is. But it doesn't change anything. Just avoid damage, as you would if you had never seen it before._ "

"How are you so calm about this?" Frisk asked as their hands rose to touch it. The color deepened where their fingers touched it, reacting to the pressure. Frisk took a quick glance at Papyrus, but he was still grovelling on the ground.

"Wow." Frisk whispered, incredulous.

Papyrus rose again and Frisk pulled their hands away, and one last question popped into their head.

"Can he see it?"

" _They all can, if you show it. It usually appears only when you want it to. In this case, you're literally opening your heart to him, so it's visible._ " Frisk willed it to leave, and it vanished inside them. Then they willed it to return, and so it did.

"We need to talk more about this later."

" _Fine._ "

Papyrus adopted a defiant expression as he rose. He resettled his weight and raised an eye socket.

"NYEH! NYEH HEH HEH! DON'T THINK YOU'VE BESTED ME YET!"

" _Is this a competition now, or something?_ "

"It just might be for him."

"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE NEVER BEEN BEATEN AT DATING, AND I NEVER WILL! I CAN EASILY KEEP UP WITH YOU! YOU SEE, I, TOO, CAN WEAR CLOTHING! IN FACT, I ALWAYS WEAR MY 'SPECIAL' CLOTHES UNDERNEATH MY REGULAR CLOTHES! JUST IN CASE SOMEONE HAPPENS TO ASK ME ON A DATE! BEHOLD!"

Papyrus leaped into his closet, and banging could be heard.

"Oooh, I'll bet it's snazzy, like a tuxedo, or a pressed white shirt with a blazer around it. He probably has a cane, and a top hat, and-"

Papyrus jumped out, wearing none of the above, instead adorned in a backwards baseball cap, a shirt that said "Cool Dude", athletic shorts of a horridly garish neon orange color, sneakers, and what appeared to be basketballs on his shoulders. Upon a second look, it was noticed that the "C" and "l" on the shirt were added onto the shirt with a permanent marker.

"Well, that wasn't what I expected, but-"

" _I like it._ "

Frisk had to pause to recognize that the voice they heard was indeed Chara's.

"What?"

" _I said I like it._ "

Before Frisk could ask for elaboration, Papyrus spoke.

"NYEH! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY SECRET STYLE!?"

"I… guess we like it."

" _You don't sound too sure, Frisk._ " Frisk could feel Chara's smug smile.

"What!? No, no, I… hey, we should probably answer him!" Frisk awkwardly laughed as they said, "I love it," to Papyrus. But Chara noticed a wavering in the voice.

Papyrus apparently didn't. "NO! A GENUINE COMPLIMENT! YOU'RE ONLY MAKING YOUR DATE POWER STRONGER!"

"What?"

" _Just go with it._ "

"HOWEVER! YOU DON'T TRULY UNDERSTAND THE HIDDEN POWER OF THIS OUTFIT! THEREFORE…" He postulated. "WHAT YOU JUST SAID IS INVALID! THIS DATE WON'T ESCALATE ANY FURTHER! UNLESS YOU FIND MY SECRET, THAT IS! BUT THAT WON'T HAP-"

Frisk pointed at Papyrus' hat immediately.

" _Well, aren't you confident?_ "

"I know him well." Chara held their tongue, knowing any rebuttal could be interpreted as "making fun of him."

"MY HAT? MY HAT. MY HAT! NYEH HEH HEH!" He laughed as he lifted his baseball cap to reveal a wrapped present resting on top of his skull.

" _Why would he- you know what nevermind._ "

"W-WELL THEN, YOU FOUND MY SECRET! I SUPPOSE I HAVE NO CHOICE! IT'S A PRESENT! A PRESENT J-JUST FOR YOU!" Papyrus looked bashful and couldn't look Frisk in the eyes.

" _I've got a bad feeling about this._ "

"Oh, I'm sure it will be fine."

Papyrus kneeled so Frisk could reach the present. Frisk carefully undid the bow and opened the box to find a plate of spaghetti, warm to the touch. It looked horrid, some of the noodles still straight and stiff, while others were black as coal, burnt to a crisp.

"Oh no." Frisk thought.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS?"

" _He's not going to make us eat that, is he?"_

Frisk nodded, an answer to both questions.

"SPAGHETTI. THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE THINKING, ISN'T IT? RIGHT!"

Frisk's face lightened up, but then they remembered that they may not be as correct as they thought, considering the plate in front of them looked nothing like spaghetti should. For a moment, Papyrus seemed to echo the sentiment.

"BUT OH-SO WRONG! THIS AIN'T ANY PLAIN OL' PASTA!"

" _This is pasta?_ " Chara asked, before slapping a hand over their mouth.

"Ha! You lose! I win! You couldn't do it!"

" _You're in love with a stupid skeleton! Literally, in this case!_ " Chara said accusingly

"Don't worry, buddy, we have plenty of time talking about all of this while I rip you apart later."

" _Just… shut up and finish your date._ "

"THIS IS AN ARTISAN'S WORK! SILKEN SPAGHETTI, FINELY AGED IN AN OAKEN CASK, THEN COOKED BY ME, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS!"

"I'm pretty sure spaghetti isn't supposed to be aged."

" _Well, at least now you have something to look forward to, buddy._ "

"Wait, you don't taste what I do?"

" _Nope._ "

"Aww, that means you didn't get to try the Nice Cream." Frisk was genuinely saddened by this realization.

" _Don't worry, I've tasted them before. They're alright._ "

"They were great!"

" _Yeah they are! I miss them so much! Being dead sucks!_ " Chara sounded on the verge of tears.

"HUMAN! IT'S TIME TO END THIS!"

" _Oh thank God._ " Chara lamented.

"THERE'S NO WAY THIS CAN GO ANY FURTHER!"

Frisk looked long and hard at the plate in front of them.

"Well, sometimes you must suffer for love." Frisk steeled themself and without a second thought jabbed a fork into the best spot they could find and put the whole thing in their mouth. The taste was indescribable, the texture rapidly changing from soggy to crunchy to just plain watery at times. Frisk was accustomed to terrible food at the orphanage, lacking in love. This, however, was the opposite. Made entirely of love, but no cooking skill anywhere to be seen. Frisk tried to control their face, but like it had a mind of it's own, it scrunched up in disgust. Papyrus, however, misinterpreted it.

"WHAT A PASSIONATE EXPRESSION! YOU MUST REALLY LOVE MY COOKING!" He said with a sideways glance. Then he broke into a smile and the same lovestruck expression he had used through much of the date.

"AND BY EXTENSION, ME!" He gasped and his eyes grew wide as he brought his hands to his mouth.

"MAYBE EVEN MORE THAN I DO! NNOOOOOOOOOO!" Papyrus fell to his knees and Frisk was taken aback.

" _Uh, Frisk, what's happening?_ "

"Your guess is as good as mine."

" _D-did we just win a date?_ "

"I think we did."

"HUMAN. IT'S CLEAR NOW." Papyrus said in an unusually deep and dramatic voice, without looking up from his kneeling position. Both humans were startled by his tone, so serious and cutting, like a freshly forged blade.

"YOU'RE MADLY IN LOVE WITH ME!"

"Yes, he finally recognizes it!" Chara didn't respond, tired of this back and forth arguing on what love was.

" _I know what real love is like._ " Chara's thoughts accidentally leaked out.

"What?"

" _Nothing. He's not done yet._ " They said quickly, and in that introverted and ashamed way they seemed to use when something from their past was mentioned. It's like talking about them or the past in general caused their mood to immediately change.

"EVERYTHING YOU DO. EVERYTHING YOU SAY. IT'S ALL BEEN FOR MY SAKE. HUMAN, I WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY TOO."

"Oh yeah, he still doesn't know my name. Oh well, we can fix that before the wedding!" Frisk said excitedly, giddy with joy.

"IT'S TIME FOR ME TO EXPRESS MY FEELINGS."

"Yes, Papyrus!"

"IT'S TIME THAT I TOLD YOU. I, PAPYRUS…" He slowly rose to his feet and stared Frisk in the eyes.

"Here it comes!"

"I, UM…" His voice had returned to it's usual high range, and his eyes wandered to a side, then to another, and basically everywhere Frisk wasn't as he gathered his thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"BOY, IS IT HOT IN HERE OR IS IT JUST ME!?"

"That's a good sign, right? He's saying that I'm hot!" Frisk said, fear creeping into their voice.

" _I think you and I both know that's not what he means, Frisk._ "

Papyrus tugged at his shirt collar a little, then dropped his hands to his side and came clean.

"OH, SHOOT. HUMAN, I'M SORRY. I DON'T LIKE YOU THE WAY YOU LIKE ME. ROMANTICALLY, I MEAN."

"W-what?" Frisk asked numbly.

"I MEAN, I TRIED VERY HARD TO! I THOUGHT THAT BECAUSE YOU FLIRTED WITH ME! THAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOU!"

"That is generally how it works, Papyrus," Frisk groaned, sadness already gripping them in their entirety.

"THEN ON THE DATE, FEELINGS WOULD BLOSSOM FORTH!"

"That's not usually how it works. Right?" Frisk inquired.

" _Not sure. Love is not my specialty. And I don't know how Mom and Dad met. Or my other parents, come to think-_ " Once again a slapping sound was heard as Chara covered their mouth.

"What do you mean, other par-"

" _He's not done yet! Listen to your boyfriend! Er, ex-boyfriend._ "

"I WOULD BE ABLE TO MATCH YOUR PASSION FOR ME! BUT ALAS, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE FAILED. I FEEL JUST THE SAME AS BEFORE. AND INSTEAD, BY DATING YOU, I HAVE ONLY DRAWN YOU DEEPER INTO YOUR INTENSE LOVE FOR ME! A DARK PRISON OF PASSION, WITH NO ESCAPE. HOW COULD I HAVE DONE THIS TO MY DEAR FRIEND? NO! WAIT! THAT'S WRONG!"

Frisk was barely listening to his ramblings, but at the wait, Frisk gave full attention to the skeleton.

"I CAN'T FAIL AT ANYTHING!"

"That's right Papyrus, you can't!

" _Are you still holding onto this?_ "

"Yes, I will not let this go, if I can."

"HUMAN, I WILL HELP YOU THROUGH THESE TRYING TIMES!"

"Dang it."

" _Sorry, buddy._ "

"I'LL KEEP BEING YOUR COOL FRIEND AND ACT LIKE ALL THIS NEVER HAPPENED. AFTER ALL YOU ARE VERY GREAT. IT WOULD BE TRAGIC TO LOSE YOUR FRIENDSHIP. SO PLEASE, DON'T CRY BECAUSE I WON'T KISS YOU. BECAUSE I DON'T EVEN HAVE LIPS. AND HEY, SOMEDAY, YOU'LL FIND SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME. WELL NO, THAT'S NOT TRUE. BUT I'LL HELP YOU SETTLE FOR SECOND BEST! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus walked over, knelt, and hugged Frisk, before rising and walking out the room. After a few moments, Frisk walked out and sat on the stairs, deep in the depths of sadness.

"So, now's your opportunity to laugh. Have at it."

" _No thanks._ "

"What?"

" _There's plenty of time to do that on the way to the barrier._ "

A smile grew on Frisk's face, and he felt Chara smile back.

" _Besides, as you said before, it's no fun if they make it too easy. And you've made it baby bones easy._ "

Frisk smiled even wider, and felt better.

" _You know how I said I would give them a chance?_ "

"Yeah."

" _Well, I'm glad you convinced me to. Papyrus is a great guy, no pun intended. He's cool, in a dorky way, and I'm glad you were here to… change my mind. Besides, think of it like this: while he's not your boyfriend, he called you great. And that means a lot._ "

Frisk chuckled.

"Yeah, he did, didn't he? Good enough for me. Now, let's get moving. I get the feeling that there's still a lot more of our journey to go."

" _Isn't there always?_ "


	11. The Other Date

Frisk stood up and dusted themselves up. While smoothing their shirt, they knocked something off.

"What the-?" It was a piece of paper, a sticky note that read,

"THIS IS MY PHONE NUMBER. FEEL FREE TO CALL ME ANYTIME! PLATONICALLY. BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE YOU THAT WAY."

" _We'll put it in your phone later, let's get moving._ "

"Right."

They left the Skeleton house and turned to go back the way they came from, past the colder than average spot they fought Papyrus at. They found a cave, seemingly carved out by the river that passed next to Snowden.

"That's a spooky cave."

" _Oh yes, very scary. The imagination runs wild. Maybe it has monsters in it._ " Chara said with mock terror. Frisk was wordless as they entered, first from annoyance, then awe.

"Look how pretty it is!"

Water fell all around them, and the walls were aglow with gemstones of dazzling brightness and vibrant color.

" _Oh, just you wait._ "

"Excuse me?"

" _Nothing._ "

Frisk was so caught up, they almost didn't notice the waterfall they almost fell into. They stopped with the screech of shoes grinding to a halt on smooth ground. They looked around, and next to them was the kid they talked to earlier, the orange and yellow creature without arms. He noticed them and became visibly more excited.

"Yo! Are you sneaking out to see her, too?"

" _Who?_ "

"I don't know, I'll just nod." Frisk nodded frantically.

" _I hope we didn't just agree to stalk a woman._ "

"Oh God, I didn't consider that."

"Awesome… She's the coolest, right!?"

"Okay, that's good, you don't creep on someone who's cool, right?"

" _Evidently, not unless they're a skeleton._ "

"Hey!"

" _We're out of Snowden, my part of the deal is complete._ " Chara said defensively.

"I wanna be just like her when I grow up." He seemed to think for a second.

"Hey, don't tell my parents I'm here. Ha ha."

Frisk gave a thumbs up, which the Monster Kid returned before turning away to look at the beautiful waterfall again.

They were about to walk away, when Frisk had a realization.

" _Wait wait wait…_ "

"What, what?"

" _That lady! The one mentioned at Grillby's. Oh no._ "

"What?"

" _She's here, of course, why wouldn't she be, she lives here, oh no we are done for…_ " Chara descended into muttered ramblings, scaring Frisk more than anything else; Chara was always so calm, well, coherent, at least, and now they were completely senseless

"Who!?"

" _Undyne. The Captain of the Royal Guard._ "

"Well uh, that sounds…" Frisk looked for anything to take Chara's mind away from this, 'Undyne,' "Hey look, there's a pretty flower!"

" _Oh my God, it's an echo flower! Those things are the best!_ " Chara's mood immediately brightened and Frisk was relieved.

" _You see, they're called echo flowers. They 'echo' whatever they last heard. It's really fun to just run around, and talk to them. Or, so I've heard._ " Chara quickly added. Frisk rolled their eyes, knowing they dabbled in them, probably a lot, then saw that Sans was watching them closely from a stand, covered in snow. He always looked so spooky, especially uncanny in such a surreal and beautiful place.

" _Okay Frisk, we're just going to walk right by him and not respond to anything he says. Got it?_ "

"Got it." Frisk started walking.

"Hey kid, I'm going to Grillby's, wanna come?"

Frisk couldn't help looking up at Sans, and when he was so close, with his knowing smile and smooth features, they panicked. They nodded as quick as they could.

"Well, if you insist, I'll pry myself away from my work."

" _WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?_ "

"I'm sorry I panicked!"

" _Frisk, you need to learn to say NO!_ "

"I'm sorry!"

" _Don't be sorry, be better!_ "

"Hey, ya coming?" Sans casually asked, from 20 feet away.

Frisk snapped back to the real world and nodded their head. Sans just cocked his to the side, like a skeletal question mark.

"Come on, then." He kept walking and Frisk hurried to catch up.

"We did it again."

" _No, YOU did it again._ "

"Come on, it's hard to focus on you and everything else."

" _Well, we better learn quick. Let's just get this over with._ " Chara sounded annoyed at Frisk's mistake and the following development, but more like a dog who peed on the rug and less than an explosive argument.

They began walking back towards Snowden when Sans caught them by the shoulder.

"Nah, not that way. I know a shortcut." He held their shoulder and began walking in the opposite direction. After a few steps, Frisk found themself at the entrance of Grillby's, with all the same familiar faces and the smell of wood all around. They looked up at Sans who winked, then said, "Fast shortcut, huh?" then started walking.

" _What just happened?_ " Chara said fearfully.

"I-I…" Frisk just kept stuttering.

" _Don't try too hard, your brain will melt, and I need that thing._ "

Sans had made his way to the bartop already, earning a warm welcome from everyone, so Frisk made their way as calmly as they could.

The weird yellow bird monster smiled then asked, "Hey Sans, weren't you just here for breakfast a few minutes ago?"

"Nah, I haven't had breakfast in at least half an hour. You must be thinking of brunch."

Everyone laughed and Sans beamed, smiling wider than usual.

" _Wow, these guys are really trying to be happy, aren't they? If that joke is all it takes to make them laugh, even you could make a living as a comedian, Frisk._ "

"Ha. Ha."

Sans sat on one of the chairs and Frisk climbed on, with a little difficulty. Before sitting, they noticed a red whoopee cushion on the chair, and put it on the counter top. Frisk looked over to Sans with raised eyebrows and lips pulled tight in a straight line, expecting a confession.

Sans perked up a little, like he had a sudden revelation, "Whoops, watch where you sit down. Sometimes weirdos put whoopee cushions on the chairs. Anyway, let's order."

"He's not fessing up."

" _Yeah, he seems the type. An enigma, behind a riddle, inside a locked chest._ "

"What would that even look like?"

" _Forget it._ " Chara looked at the menu. " _Uh, let's get the burger. Prove to him you're a deadly carnivore, the top dog. Give him reason to never mess with you again._ "

"No, we're trying to make friends." Frisk thought for a moment. "But I'm getting the burger anyways, not because of the intimidation thing, but because I like burgers." Frisk knew it didn't sound convincing.

" _Uh-hunh. Sure._ "

"Shut up!"

Frisk pointed to the burger on the menu.

"Hey, that sounds pretty good, Grillby, we'll have a double order of burg!"

They were silent for a few seconds, looking in opposite directions, when Sans spoke, "So, what do you think of my brother?"

Frisk immediately brightened and all the anxiety and fear they felt around Sans vanished. They began gushing about how cool Papyrus was, even pulling out their phone to show his number, then remembered it wasn't there yet, and put it in right in front of Sans.

"Alright kid, alright, I get it. Of course he's cool. You'd be cool too, if you wore that outfit everyday."

" _Did you catch that Frisk, it means you're not cool._ " Chara said mockingly.

"I caught it." Frisk said annoyed.

" _OOOOOOHHHHHHH!_ "

"He'd only take that thing off if he absolutely had to. Oh well, at least he washes it. And by that I mean he wears it in the shower."

" _I really hope he's joking._ "

"I wouldn't be surprised either way."

"Here comes the grub." Grillby arrived with two burgers and gave a slight nod to both of them before grabbing another glass and cleaning it with a towel.

"Want some ketchup?"

" _No Frisk, don't fall for it, I bet it's a prank!_ "

"You're right! Aww, but I like ketchup, and what if he's being honest?"

" _Don't do it! We need food that's edible, not a ketchupy mess._ "

"Alright." Frisk sighed and shook their head.

"Alright, suit yourself." He took off the cap, then put it to his mouth, chugging the tomato paste until the bottle was empty.

Frisk leaned back and their eyes became huge.

" _Do you like it that much?_ " Chara said, giggling.

"Shut up, Chara." They thought, never moving their eyes from the skeleton.

Sans continued to talk looking dead ahead. "Anyway, cool or not, you have to agree Papyrus tries real hard. Like how he keeps trying to be a part of the Royal Guard. One day, he went to the house of the head of the Royal Guard, and begged her to let him be in it. Of course, she shut the door on him because it was midnight."

"Yeah, that sounds like him."

"But the next day, she woke up and saw him still waiting there."

"Oh my God." Frisk mentally facepalmed.

"Seeing his dedication, she decided to give him warrior training. It's, uh, still a work in progress. Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you something. He turned to them.

Suddenly, a thumping sound rang in their ears. Frisk's casual smile disappeared. They looked around, and people were frozen in place, some mid-conversation, some in the middle of drinking, Grillby reaching for another glass. The room got dark, except for a circle around the two of them. Fear gripped their heart as they looked back at Sans.

"Have you ever heard of a talking flower?"

" _Yes, yes we have, tell him what he wants to know, tell him quick before he kills us!_ " Chara was in their panicked rambling stage, but Frisk didn't have to be told twice.

"So you know all about it. The echo flower. They're all over the marsh. Say something to them and they'll repeat it, over and over."

"W-what about it?"

"What about it? Well, Papyrus told me something interesting the other day. Sometimes, when no one else is around, a flower appears and whispers things to him. Flattery, advice, encouragement. Predictions. Weird, huh? Someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on him. Keep an eye out, okay? Thanks."

Then everything came back to life, light flooded the room, the loud din returned and Grillby got back to work behind the counter. The only person that didn't go back to what they were doing before, was Frisk.

Sans got off the stool and faced the door. "Welp, that was a long break. I can't believe I let ya pull me away from work for that long." He winked, and took a step to leave, before raising a bony finger and turning back to them.

"Oh, by the way, I'm flat broke. Can you foot the bill? It's just 10,000G." Before Frisk could even respond, Sans said, "Just kidding. Grillby, put it on my tab."

Frisk just sat there, both Frisk and Chara completely stunned, with no words to fill the silence. Eventually, they just turned around and ate both burgers. They were cold, but Grillby wordlessly came by and reheated them with his hands. He nodded again, then left using the back door.

"I think it's best if we just forget that ever happened."

" _Yeah, good luck with that. I'll never look at an echo flower again. Dang it, he ruined one of my favorite flowers!_ "

"Well, I suppose it's time to get moving. The barrier isn't coming to us."

" _But Undyne is._ "

"Oh come on, how bad can she be?"

Chara was silent for a few seconds. " _I really hate it when you talk._ "

Frisk waved it off as Chara's usual cynicism, not giving it a second thought. That would later prove to be a mistake.


End file.
